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
arkansas basketball both chance college great size talented team teams
It was a great, great college basketball game. Both teams had a chance to win. I think Arkansas is as talented as any team in the league. They have more experience, much more size and physicality than we do.
advantage anyone full game hands hard physical position talented team
They are a team that is as talented as anyone this year. They are an outstanding team. We will have our hands full at every position in this game. We don't have a physical advantage at all. It will be a hard game for us.
error margin talented team
Our margin for error is small. We are not more talented than any team we play against.
best coach coaching court game good guys moments talented team ugly walking whether win
I have said before that we are not the most talented team, we are not the best team and there are always ugly moments in games. But you are always going to feel good as a coach walking off the court coaching these guys because they give you everything they have. Whether that is enough to win the game (against Tennessee), we'll see.
change good gotten guy hard kids talented totally unselfish worked
If you have a guy that's talented but totally into himself, who never had to be unselfish a day in his life, it's really hard to change that mentality. Now we've got good kids who have been unselfish and have worked hard and gotten better.
against basketball early everybody four knew last played playing six stretch talented teams toughest
If you look at our last four to six games, everybody knew it was going to be the toughest part and stretch of our schedule. Our basketball team, when we had all that early success, I don't know if we've played against teams as talented as we're playing against now.
against beat good hard played playing talented teams
I don't know if we've played against teams as talented as teams we're playing against now. Playing hard, playing unselfish, doing all the right things, team-wise, is great. ... But it's not good enough to beat good teams.
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.
built deep good run
We weren't good enough. We weren't built to make a deep run in the tournament.
felt fortunate locker playing room tied
We were playing for survival. I felt fortunate just going into the locker room being tied at halftime.
ball coaching easy guys half inside job missed second upbeat
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.