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 will need to be concerned more with providing help and doing things that will take them out of their offensive flow, because if their big guys get second and third opportunities it can really become a problem for us.
When we lost to Manhattan, we were banged up. That's not making excuses. I just didn't like the passion we played with in that tournament.
When we lost three in a row, I said it's good for our team because it is helping them figure out how to win. They didn't understand a missed block out, a broken defensive assignment, giving up 3-point shots could cause us to lose.
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 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 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).
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.
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.
Glen Davis is to college basketball and to this league what Shaquille O'Neal is to the NBA. There's nobody quite like him.