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
environment faced gave great played possibly proud road team toughest
We played great tonight, we really did. They gave me everything I could possibly want. I am really proud of the way our team responded here. This was the toughest road environment we faced all season.
against amount basketball enormous georgia good guys mindset providence quality road team wins
We've had some good quality wins on the road at Providence and Miami, but our guys still feel like they have an enormous amount to prove. The mindset of our basketball team is we feel like going against Georgia is a lot to prove.
across add biggest cares changing drama guys half mandatory ncaa press road tournament
The biggest thing with the NCAA Tournament is to try to get across to your guys that there's a lot of drama and a lot of changing of routines. Any road game, we've never come in a day and a half early. We have to go to a mandatory shoot-around, we have to go to press conferences. When we go on the road to Alabama, no one cares we're in town. This is an event. For some guys, that can add pressure.
challenge difficult present problems road
It's going to be a difficult road challenge for us because of the different problems they present us.
hard road win
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42 to 20 on the free-throw line.
arkansas free half hard kept road throws win
It's hard to win on the road when it's 42-20 (Arkansas' favor) in free throws shot. That's a big discrepancy. But Arkansas made only 5 of 12 free throws in the first half and that kept us in it.
disrupted flow free game hard road stagnant throw win
It's hard to win a road game when it's 42-20 at the free throw line. It really disrupted our flow and made us stagnant in our offense.
against generally guaranteed miami mindset played providence road schedule syracuse wake wonder york
Our schedule has been balanced. There are generally times when you have to play those guaranteed games. You wonder what it does to the mindset of your players, but we've played on the road at Providence and Miami and up in New York against Syracuse and Wake Forest. I think we've been tested.
facing february focused great group guys helped peaked played point pride road setbacks team took tougher worked
I think our guys took great pride in facing a tougher road to get to this point than other teams. I think our team got better. They were a very, very focused group that worked hard. They peaked and probably played well because of some setbacks in February that helped us grow.
feeling game georgia kids playing road tough underdogs
These kids are about challenges, competition. I don't think they look at playing at Georgia any differently than they do playing St. Joe's. In their minds, being 13-0, they are going in there feeling that they are underdogs because it's a road game in a place that's tough to play.
felt gave half offensive outside rebounds score second tried
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.
assistance function fund kids notice players recently short student suit
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.
attack mix
We just wanted to continually attack and mix up our defenses.
attack continue defend extra game guys mix pass tried year
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.