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
agree five forest game games grind guys learn miami minutes people rather score ways win winning won
I think sometimes when you win people think you're not challenged, but I don't necessarily agree with that. (Wake Forest and Syracuse) were won by five points, then we went to Miami and with two minutes to go in the game the score was tied. Sometimes people think if you win, it's been all easy. I think our guys have had to grind out games and find ways to win some games. I'd rather learn through winning than losing.
philosophy practice single teams
My philosophy defensively is to try to take teams out of what they practice every single day.
kids next personal talking
My personal opinion, after talking with these kids and their families, is they will be back next year.
adrian feeling next outside personal team year
My personal feeling is right now our team will be back next year outside of Adrian Moss.
asked beforehand paint picture questions yeah
I said to those guys, we're doing a thing now and I'm probably going to be asked some questions beforehand and/or after and I said what I would like to do is say something. They were like, 'Yeah, yeah Coach, that would be great.' Now the whole thing they did I didn't know. I just told them I was going to paint a picture and say I don't know what those guys' futures were.
across appreciate coming country family graduated playing respect ryan saw tough
I respect and appreciate him for coming across the country and playing at Florida. I think Ryan being away from his family and not playing as much was tough on him, and he saw that (since graduated guard) Anthony Roberson was coming back.
battling game kept kids playing points truly win
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.
causing giving good guys imagine losing needed shore taught three
Our guys needed to be taught why we were losing, what was causing them to lose. I wanted them to see this is what we're giving up, and we're losing in overtime, we're losing by two or three points. Imagine if we shore this up, how good we can be.
basketball best college deal enjoy focus guys handle pinnacle position regular
Our guys have to be able to handle that pressure. There are a lot of distractions. There is a lot of tugging and a lot of things you have to deal with that are different from the regular season. I want them to enjoy where they are at because it is the pinnacle of college basketball to get to this point. At the same time, you have to keep the focus there and put yourself in position to play the best basketball.
guys hard tried work
Our guys have really tried to work hard at it.
far good guys humility job keeping level trying
Our guys have done a pretty good job so far of keeping a level of humility and trying to get better each day.
good guys knew lack line prepared respect tonight
Our guys were prepared and knew Sheldon was a good 3-point shooter. But I think there was a lack of respect for the 3-point line tonight by our guys.
adversity found shooting team win
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.
conference game good guys playing points score starters team tennessee
Our starters didn't play a lot of minutes, and it was good to see us score as many points as we did with those guys not playing. For our team right now, playing this midweek game before getting back into the (Southeastern) conference at Tennessee (Saturday) was good for us.