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.
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.
Playing hard and playing passionately isn't good enough to win.
Playing at a neutral site, you can throw all of the seeds out the window.
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.
Statistically, that was the key to the game. We shoot 49 percent on the road, you're not going to get much better than that.
Stan has done a great job. People don't understand how hard this league is. Arkansas' loss at Ole Miss was not a bad loss. Ole Miss is a very good, well-coached team.