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 don't get into the numbers because you still have to go win that game. There's not much difference in a 1 or a 2 or in a 3 and a 4. Beyond that anything can happen. That's why it's called March Madness.
I was really so proud of the way they fought their way back to tie the game up. . . . But there is a huge difference between Tennessee and ourselves.
No one likes losing, but it's great for our basketball team to go through this. It is great because they need this. I really believe the difference was our experience as a basketball team in relation to their experience.
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.
I think the difference in the game was the three-point line.
I think a year makes a difference in a player.
I really don?t believe that seeding means a whole lot or makes a whole lot of difference anymore. It used to be a time where you got that No. 1 or No. 2 seed and you felt pretty good about trying to get to that Elite Eight. I think those times have changed.
The greatest equalizer in college basketball -- it doesn't make a difference about talent or who's better than who -- is the three-point line.
We tried to make them score outside their offense. We gave up 10 offensive rebounds in the first half, but in the second half I felt like their frontcourt was fatigued.
We just recently had a function where we had to go into the student assistance fund to get players some clothes. Some of our kids come from backgrounds where getting a suit on short notice is difficult.
We just wanted to continually attack and mix up our defenses.
We just tried to continue to attack and mix up our defenses. I told our guys this game would come down to the same things we've been doing all year - unselfishness, making the extra pass and being able to defend and rebound.
We weren't good enough. We weren't built to make a deep run in the tournament.
We were playing for survival. I felt fortunate just going into the locker room being tied at halftime.