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
against easily until work
We're 16-0 right now, but we could very easily be 11-5. It's that fragile. We have to work for everything we get. We had to work against Auburn all the way to the end. We had to work all the way until the end against Mississippi State.
coach david
We didn't want to put David into the game, but we didn't have much of a choice. Anthony (associate coach Anthony Grant) was out of eligibility.
good guards point
There are a lot of good point guards in this league.
across appreciate coming country family graduated playing respect ryan saw tough
I respect and appreciate him for coming across the country and playing at Florida. I think Ryan being away from his family and not playing as much was tough on him, and he saw that (since graduated guard) Anthony Roberson was coming back.
battling game kept kids playing points truly win
Our kids just kept battling and playing hard. I mean, to win a championship game and not even get to 50 points is truly remarkable.
causing giving good guys imagine losing needed shore taught three
Our guys needed to be taught why we were losing, what was causing them to lose. I wanted them to see this is what we're giving up, and we're losing in overtime, we're losing by two or three points. Imagine if we shore this up, how good we can be.
basketball best college deal enjoy focus guys handle pinnacle position regular
Our guys have to be able to handle that pressure. There are a lot of distractions. There is a lot of tugging and a lot of things you have to deal with that are different from the regular season. I want them to enjoy where they are at because it is the pinnacle of college basketball to get to this point. At the same time, you have to keep the focus there and put yourself in position to play the best basketball.
guys hard tried work
Our guys have really tried to work hard at it.
far good guys humility job keeping level trying
Our guys have done a pretty good job so far of keeping a level of humility and trying to get better each day.
good guys knew lack line prepared respect tonight
Our guys were prepared and knew Sheldon was a good 3-point shooter. But I think there was a lack of respect for the 3-point line tonight by our guys.
adversity found shooting team win
Our team battled through the adversity of the game. They battled through not shooting the ball, and we found a way, defensively, to win the game.
conference game good guys playing points score starters team tennessee
Our starters didn't play a lot of minutes, and it was good to see us score as many points as we did with those guys not playing. For our team right now, playing this midweek game before getting back into the (Southeastern) conference at Tennessee (Saturday) was good for us.
against generally guaranteed miami mindset played providence road schedule syracuse wake wonder york
Our schedule has been balanced. There are generally times when you have to play those guaranteed games. You wonder what it does to the mindset of your players, but we've played on the road at Providence and Miami and up in New York against Syracuse and Wake Forest. I think we've been tested.
bench came good guys late main
Our bench really did some good things, some encouraging things. That really kind of sparked our main guys when they came back in there late in the first half.