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
Quite honestly, I'm not concerned about that. I'm more worried about making sure that this team understands what's a good shot, what's a bad shot, going into the season.
Probably what changed my mind more so than anything else was when I met with (Florida athletic director) Jeremy Foley. In that meeting, it was very, very clear that he understood where things were at, and he understood what needed to happen to try to turn the program.
Our faculty rep said to me before the game that when you start with something from scratch and you build it up to win a championship, that's something special.
Our faculty rep said before the game that the greatest thing is to build something from scratch. This is a huge milestone.
On TV, it looks great ... but it's really a scary environment on the floor. The other thing it does is it takes away from what a great win Florida State had. They shouldn't (have to) be addressing their lack of security or whatever. ... They should be talking about how great their kids played and what a great win it was for their program.
Offensively, pretty much the entire game, I thought we played very well. But we played an exceptional half defensively in the second half. We were just fair at best in the first half.
We didn't have the ball movement and the player movement that we had had in the course of the year. But I thought the defense and rebounding in the first half kept us somewhat close. I was pleasantly surprised that we were only down 11.
We had some better ball movement, some better player movement.
We had size on them and I felt like if he got it up there we could get a rebound and put it back in.
We have entered a stage right now in college basketball where 15 years ago, it would have been maybe totally no way George Mason could go to the Final Four. It just goes to show how many good coaches there are out there, how many good players there are out there. On any given night, anybody can beat anybody.
Even though the Tigers don't have the height, if you look at the size and girth of those guys in relation to our guys - they're more powerful and more explosive up front. I don't know if we had a physical advantage.
The surgery went well. ... They don't think there's any type of concussion or anything like that, but where his status is for Sunday, I'm not really sure.
The surgery went well. He wasn't at practice because he was dealing with so many things medically. . . . I'll probably have a better understanding maybe (today).
The surgery went well, but what his status is for Sunday, I'm not really sure right now.