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
Part of it is youthfulness, but the one thing about the kids is that they're in every game.
Our margin for error is small. We are not more talented than any team we play against.
Our options are getting smaller and slimmer. We've got to make due with what we've got. We've had some things we've had to deal with.
For us, it was a game we had to grind it out. It wasn't always our style of play. ... Tonight was about consecutive stops and defending the 3-point line. They shot 19 percent from the 3-point line and 39 percent from the field. That was the difference.
Glen Davis is to college basketball and to this league what Shaquille O'Neal is to the NBA. There's nobody quite like him.
If it were something where he was riding a motorcycle and he was popping some wheelies and he got hurt, than maybe I would be a bit more concerned. It was just a freak accident.
I got choked up. When 19 years passes by and you go back, to hear the people cheering the way they did and to honor me that way, I was extremely humbled. I was shocked, taken back, and I didn't expect anything like that.
I get great pleasure seeing our kids enjoy the game. It's not about me or how young I am. But it's about the people you coach all the time, and I get a lot of pleasure seeing our kids celebrate.
I get great pleasure seeing our kids enjoy it, our administration enjoy it, our fans enjoy it. It's not about me.
If that happened, I'd be really disappointed in our team. We're playing against a team that really out-performed us a couple of weeks ago in Columbia. The final score says 6 points, but we were down by 15 in the second half, we were dominated in the game. I would hope our guys would be excited about having the opportunity to compete again and play again.
If someone wants to say, 'What Florida has done to this point in time means absolutely nothing... the regular season doesn't mean anything... the Southeastern Conference tournament championship means nothing.' That's fine.
He was almost in tears because, for the first time in his life, he wasn't getting an opportunity to play. I told him, this is going to come to an end this season. And when it does, your time is here.
He has a great passion and vigor for life. He has great respect for people - where they come from, what their heritage is and what their beliefs are.
He has a great, great vigor for life.