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
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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.
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On TV, it looks great ... but it's really a scary environment on the floor. The other thing it does is it takes away from what a great win Florida State had. They shouldn't (have to) be addressing their lack of security or whatever. ... They should be talking about how great their kids played and what a great win it was for their program.
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Sometimes, in the NCAA Tournament, the best team doesn't always win. Sometimes it's the hottest team or the luck of the bounce or a shot going in or something happens. Why not give every kid an opportunity to create some type of magic for themselves?
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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.
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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.
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I can tell you that these kids have a great deal of love and concern and care for one another.
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This will be our second time to face South Carolina this season. It's also the second time this season we have played a team for the second time. They played with great emotion the last time we played each other. We got off to a good start early, but they were the better team that night. It was a six-point win for them, but they had us down 15 points at one point. This game will be a challenge for us. They have competitive kids and they totally out performed us. They beat us in every facet of the game. The challenge to our team is to take it one game to the next. Our last time against them is over. Our last home game is over.
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With the age limit, I think you're going to continually make college basketball very young. Some kids handle it better than others. ... It makes it very challenging, very, very, very difficult.
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We'll have to deal with being ranked one, two or three in the country. These are the kids I would love to deal with those challenges with.
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This team is just different. Different kids, different time, different everything.
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The biggest thing is, our kids play the game the right way. They're going to make the extra pass and move the basketball. We're averaging almost 20 assists.
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It's great for our kids and for our program. But I'm just a small part of it.
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It's a totally different team. This one is special because these kids have shown a level of selflessness and play the way the game should be played. They look out for each other. They care for each other. That shows on the court.
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Whether it said across their jersey Cinderella, George Mason or another team, for us our basketball team, it's just a matter of going out there playing. Our kids were feeling the same thing that George Mason kids were feeling. The feeling was not any different between teams.