Billy Donovan
Billy Donovan
William John Donovan, Jr.is an American professional basketball coach who is currently the head coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder of the National Basketball Association. He previously spent 19 seasons at the University of Florida, where his Florida Gators men's basketball teams won two NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships in 2006 and 2007. Donovan has more wins than any other coach in the history of the Florida basketball program, and he coached the Gators to more NCAA tournament appearances,...
ProfessionCoach
Date of Birth30 May 1965
CityRockville Centre, NY
It's hard to win a road game when it's 42-20 at the free throw line. It really disrupted our flow and made us stagnant in our offense.
The second half was a back-and-forth basketball game. Give Arkansas credit. They made some plays and their kids played hard and I thought it was a great college basketball game that both teams had a chance to win at times.
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42-20 (Arkansas' favor) in free throws shot. That's a big discrepancy. But Arkansas made only 5 of 12 free throws in the first half and that kept us in it.
Self-inflicted wounds. I knew it was going to be this kind of a game. I told our team we're going to have to grind it out and win ugly.
Sometimes, it's about players. The makeup of these guys, they've come into the season and played unselfish. We're fortunate to be 12-0 but at the same time have done the things that we needed to do offensively and defensively to win those games.
I always felt I was going to have a lot of fun coaching these guys. They've had the right attitude, and winning has been the byproduct of it.
I think in the SEC tournament if you can get a bye that's always a great thing. It's certainly very hard playing four consecutive games in a row to win an SEC championship.
Our kids just kept battling and playing hard. I mean, to win a championship game and not even get to 50 points is truly remarkable.
Our team battled through the adversity of the game. They battled through not shooting the ball, and we found a way, defensively, to win the game.
For a while there, everybody talked about if you really want to win at the college level, you have to have two or three pros on your team. I'm not so sure that's the case any more.
This is not about me. If we are fortunate enough to win tomorrow night, it's over. Tuesday morning, it's gone, on to the next thing.
I knew both teams played sound defense. I thought whoever could attack better had the best chance to win this game.
I don't get into the numbers because you still have to go win that game. There's not much difference in a 1 or a 2 or in a 3 and a 4. Beyond that anything can happen. That's why it's called March Madness.
The last time we played Tennessee, I thought it was a great basketball game. Both teams played well. It was a tie score with 20 seconds to go. Both teams played a pretty balanced game. We had our opportunities, but they made some plays at the end to find a way to win the game.