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
They have a chance to be special this year, ... They should be, without question, one of the top five teams in the country.
They're so hard to get the ball inside against. But I felt if we could just get the ball up against the backboard, we had a good chance at getting offensive rebounds. It was good to see Al and Jo play the way they did.
They're going to have bad shooting nights. This was one of our worst shooting performances of the year and we found a way to win.
They're a great help team. They really rotate to each other. One of the big keys in defense is a lot of times guys are afraid to leave their man and give help because they're worried about the next guy rotating to their man.
They're not blocking those guys' shots. If they want to fly through the air and do that, they'll be on the bench.
There's been a lot of hard work and sweat that's gone into it. It's a huge milestone. It's a huge thing for our state, for our fans.
There's a reason why we started the season unranked. This is just something that we have to get through.
That's what we're trying to build here at Florida. That's what we're trying to create. It has to start somewhere.
That takes a kid with unbelievable character. It takes a kid who cares about the team, a kid who wants to win.
That's just what they want to do. I think they're having a lot of fun; I think they're different types of kids. They're not prepared to make the next step right now. They want to be here, they want to play, they want to be together was a group. They want to stay to play together as a team.
That's generally a recipe for disaster, but because we defended the 3-point line that gave us an opportunity.
You're time's here. Don't make the mistake of being so disappointed that you aren't getting to play that you don't come back ready for next year.
You're playing a game right now, living each moment. Play each moment. They peaked and probably played well because of the setbacks we had in February that helped us grow.
You play the game out and you play the game with your best players on the floor. I think Tubby would agree with that.