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
ball coaching easy guys half inside job missed second upbeat
We missed so many easy baskets around the rim at first. We did a much better job in the second half of getting the ball inside and rebounding. As a coaching staff, we have to keep our guys upbeat and not let them get frustrated.
convert decent easy looks missed
We missed a lot of easy baskets and missed a lot of opportunities. We had decent looks and couldn't convert in a lot of situations.
deal hand
We have to deal with what's at hand right now.
disrupt flow low practice single teams trying whether
We try to take teams out of what they practice every single day, whether through pressing, trapping, three-quarter-court pressing, through trapping pick-and-rolls, trapping the low post. We're trying to do things to disrupt the flow of the game.
deal game issues needed people step
We all deal with issues and challenges. This is a game where we needed different people to step up.
ball challenge defense knock maybe shoot shots won
Tonight, we won because of our defense and they didn't shoot the ball particularly well. I would say it was a combination, that we did at times challenge their shots, and there were maybe also some shots they just didn't knock down.
check games guarded key line lost three tonight
Tonight was about consecutive stops, and we guarded the 3-point line. If you want to look back and go to a key thing of why we lost three games in a row, check the 3-point line ... that's why we lost.
difficult happened shoots team tonight
Tonight happened to be one of his nights. We become a very difficult team when he shoots like that.
aspect dribble finding good gotten guard inside involved knowing league point pull score terms
To me, he's involved in every aspect of their offense. He can score off the dribble and he's gotten better at finding his own shot. And he's probably as good as any point guard in this league in terms of knowing when to shoot, when not to shoot, when to go inside and when to pull it out.
across against arm available counting far feeling left reason shooting shot south type weeks
The reason he shot it so far to the left was he never really got his left arm up and he shot it across his body. This is going to be another one to two weeks before he's back to probably feeling healthy. I would think that he would be available against South Carolina. How many minutes? What type of role? Will he be able to get back to his shooting form? I'm hopeful, but I'm not counting on that.
anybody beating difference five six surprised
There is not a big difference between the one or two (seeds) and the five or six (seeds). I don't think anybody would be surprised with anybody beating anybody.
felt giving good guys imagine losing message overtime shore three tried
Those three losses, to be honest, I felt pretty encouraged. I just didn't want our guys to get down. I wanted them to see 'Hey listen, this is what we're giving up, and we're losing in overtime and losing by 2 to 3 points. Imagine if we shore this up, how good we can be.' That was kind of the message I tried to give them during that time.
basketball experience felt games starting team win
This team, starting the season, I felt had all the team makeup. Unselfishness. They wanted to learn, they wanted to work, they wanted to get better. I didn't know if we'd have the experience to win basketball games or enough basketball games because we'd never been there before.
kids team
This team is just different. Different kids, different time, different everything.