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
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.
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.
When we lost three in a row, I said it's good for our team because it is helping them figure out how to win. They didn't understand a missed block out, a broken defensive assignment, giving up 3-point shots could cause us to lose.
It's good to see him do well because he was non-existent at South Carolina. He's having a phenomenal year. I'm hoping he can continue to evolve and move forward. We missed his rebounding last game, but he did a terrific job on both ends of the floor today. It's good to see him learning.
I thought there were times (against South Carolina) when guys created off the dribble and didn't find him. I thought he should have gotten up 10 or 11 shots. There was three or four or five times when our guys missed him. Our team has got to do a better job of recognizing when he's open and getting him the basketball.
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.
He's probably never going to get to a point where he feels great the rest of the season. But I think his confidence level is high. It's good to see him take the amount of shots he took. He put up 11 3s on the road. It was great to see him confidently shoot the basketball and it was great to see him move to the next shot, even when he missed a couple in a row.
George Mason has been playing great. But I thought the key to the game was the 3-point line. That was one thing missing from what people were talking about.
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.