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 started to understand that playing hard isn't enough. I think that stretch helped them understand that there was another piece to winning.
A lot of it was their slapping, their reaching, their grabbing, experienced ways they know how to do things. I don't want to say they frustrated us, but they made things difficult.
A lot of our guys don't have shirt, jacket and ties, so we wanted them to be as neat as possible.
It's hard when you lose. We have highly competitive guys. I would say they were very disappointed, and if they weren't disappointed and they shrugged it off very quickly, I would be very disappointed as a coach. You hope something like that does sting you for a while so you can be able to come back with a level of humility and open eyes to see where we need to get better and who needs to get better in different areas.
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42 to 20 on the free-throw line.
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42-20 (Arkansas' favor) in free throws shot. That's a big discrepancy. But Arkansas made only 5 of 12 free throws in the first half and that kept us in it.
It's hard to win a road game when it's 42-20 at the free throw line. It really disrupted our flow and made us stagnant in our offense.
It's been a lot of work here. But it's been rewarding.
It's been a unique and special group of kids. What's been special about this group is that they've played the same way all season, from back in November when we played in New York City to now.
It's been a remarkable run up to this point in time.
It's good to see him do well because he was non-existent at South Carolina. He's having a phenomenal year. I'm hoping he can continue to evolve and move forward. We missed his rebounding last game, but he did a terrific job on both ends of the floor today. It's good to see him learning.
It's good to see him do well because he was nonexistent at South Carolina.
It's great for our kids and for our program. But I'm just a small part of it.
David shouldn't have been out there. He wasn't feeling well at all.