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
We're right back to where we were before the season started.
We're looking forward in playing in what is a great, great event. We don't know who our opponent will be, but we know it will be a very good team and we know that this is a one-and-done situation.
We've got a very quick turnaround. We're going to have to get a lot done in a very short period of time.
We're just a basketball team that doesn't have a lot of depth right now. That's our biggest challenge.
When it comes to being around the media or adults or people who look at him differently he's very shy and very cautious, ... If he doesn't know you it takes a while for Jason to trust you.
We realize the toughest stretch of the season is here.
We played great tonight, we really did. They gave me everything I could possibly want. I am really proud of the way our team responded here. This was the toughest road environment we faced all season.
Those guys, being seniors, they know how to rest during a game. We had to make them guard to make them uncomfortable on the offensive end.
We're blocking more shots than we have in the last several years, but I don't think as a coaching staff we're saying this is a point of emphasis for our defense. We don't want to be a team that's just jumping up in the air trying to block shots because there are a lot of things that happen that are not good if you don't block it. So we just have to be selective.
We got beat by a better team with more experience.
We are trying to build tradition. Kentucky's the one that has the tradition and we are trying to get there.
We don't have the luxury of making a mistake on the backboard, and we make mistake after mistake. For every time one of our guys gets praise for blocking a shot, when they don't, they give up position by leaving the floor too early.
When you shoot like we did and the other team is shooting 71 percent from 3-point range, you expect to be down 15 or 20 points.
Whether it said across their jersey 'Cinderella' or 'George Mason' or another team, it didn't matter. We just had to go out there and play.