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 shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. . . . I thought both teams had fatigue settle in as the game went on.
We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. In the second half, the first (six) possessions, we turned it over four times.
I thought we played well on the defensive end to only be down at 11 at the half with the way we shot the ball. As well as we played defensively in the first half, we didn't do the things we needed to on the boards and on defense in the second half.
We didn't do a good enough job of defending them in the first half. They were beating us off the dribble and creating opportunities to knock down the threes. In the second half, we did such a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint (for Kentucky).
We still have to play the games. At this point in the year, you talk about those things. I don't know what real advantage it gives you except you've got to win three games instead of four.
Those are great for our basketball team. You hate to lose them. But our team has to go through this before they can reach their potential.
There are three ligaments around the shoulder area where he got injured and apparently if you tear more than one you have to have surgery to get back the stability in his shoulder. I know he tore one ligament, but he didn't need surgery and there were no fractures in 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.
Whether it said across their jersey Cinderella, George Mason or another team, for us our basketball team, it's just a matter of going out there playing. Our kids were feeling the same thing that George Mason kids were feeling. The feeling was not any different between teams.
When you win, people think you're not challenged. I don't necessarily agree with that.
When you win, it creates unbelievable opportunities in life. It's nothing negative against Florida, but they have to look at these opportunities.
We were able to work inside out. We had a little better balance in the second half and we still continued to defend the three. That was a big concern for myself going into this game.