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've been here 10 years and its a special place, an opportunity as great as any in college basketball. But tonight is not about me. It's about these young men.
We had won 17 games, but going into tonight we were 0-0. I knew Duke had lost, but these are different guys. They are more wrapped up in trying to become a good team, to become better individually and really sacrifice for one another.
Tonight was about consecutive stops, and we guarded the 3-point line. If you want to look back and go to a key thing of why we lost three games in a row, check the 3-point line ... that's why we lost.
Tonight happened to be one of his nights. We become a very difficult team when he shoots like that.
I thought Corey was very focused. I thought the most valuable lesson he may have learned tonight was he hit some shots early and you started to see him involved in other areas of his game. He was able to affect the game in a lot of different ways.
I thought tonight was going to be about offense. Who could attack each other's defense better.
Our guys were prepared and knew Sheldon was a good 3-point shooter. But I think there was a lack of respect for the 3-point line tonight by our guys.
For us, it was a game we had to grind it out. It wasn't always our style of play. ... Tonight was about consecutive stops and defending the 3-point line. They shot 19 percent from the 3-point line and 39 percent from the field. That was the difference.
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.