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
That's one of the things we talked about with our guys. How are we going to respond when we don't shoot well? Here was a night where we didn't shoot the ball well. This was a game where we had to grind it out and find a way to win.
It's nice to do something that hasn't been done in 21 years. But it does not move you any closer to the goals you have.
They've been totally selfless and they've been all about the team and they've been all about winning.
They've been able to inspire a lot of different people... people that maybe are really, really in need.
They started to understand that playing hard isn't enough. I think that stretch helped them understand that there was another piece to winning.
A lot of it was their slapping, their reaching, their grabbing, experienced ways they know how to do things. I don't want to say they frustrated us, but they made things difficult.
A lot of our guys don't have shirt, jacket and ties, so we wanted them to be as neat as possible.
We're just a basketball team that doesn't have a lot of depth right now. That's our biggest challenge.
The one thing you've got to do with reading is it's something you've got to do every day. Anything you want to do in life, you've got to practice every day.
We are a different team. I don't know if it's a better or what it is, but it's different and it's different roles.
When you talk about college careers and guys in the Big East, and you put not only their numbers and their stats, but add on top of that the fact that they have won as much as they have won, I think you can throw them in there with any guards that have played in the league.
We're right back to where we were before the season started. We've got to be able to prove ourselves. I think it's very, very evident, we're not a Top 5, Top 10, Top 15 team.
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.