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
I still feel like the kids in our program could get a whole lot better and could improve. And I think another year in college for those guys, or two, would prove to be valuable to them, rather than someone taking a chance or an opportunity, and those guys sitting on the bench and not having a chance to develop.
I still feel it's a learning and growing process for our guys. I'm shocked, unbelievably surprised, that we're 23-6. We've obviously lost a lot of close games, but if you would have told me that Brewer would be out for a stretch and Lee Humphrey would have a separated shoulder, I would have told you we would have had some problems.
I think I'm going to have to look at some things from the recruiting standpoint. We have not had the level of continuity in this program like Kentucky has had, in terms of having three, four seniors every year.
I think hitting his first shot helped him. It was great to see Lee mix up his game. Lee took a step in that he found other ways to help our team win when he wasn't hitting his 3-pointers.
You have to do a great job evaluating those kids maybe in the top 25 to 100. So we could (eventually) have some junior and senior classes.
You just don't see a lot of players like Glen Davis in college basketball.
When it comes to being around the media or adults or people who look at him differently he's very shy and very cautious, ... If he doesn't know you it takes a while for Jason to trust you.
We realize the toughest stretch of the season is here.
We played great tonight, we really did. They gave me everything I could possibly want. I am really proud of the way our team responded here. This was the toughest road environment we faced all season.
Those guys, being seniors, they know how to rest during a game. We had to make them guard to make them uncomfortable on the offensive end.
We're blocking more shots than we have in the last several years, but I don't think as a coaching staff we're saying this is a point of emphasis for our defense. We don't want to be a team that's just jumping up in the air trying to block shots because there are a lot of things that happen that are not good if you don't block it. So we just have to be selective.
It hasn't come up in any conversations we've had.
It hasn't been just this game. It's been all year long. These guys stay focused. It's been a unique and special group.
I thought last year's team that we played, they were by far the most physical team we played against. They're even more physical than they were a year ago.