Billy Donovan Quotes (367 Quotes)

You can't get many assists if you don't shoot the ball well. I thought our player movement in the first half at times was poor.

Probably what changed my mind more so than anything else was when I met with (Florida athletic director) Jeremy Foley. In that meeting, it was very, very clear that he understood where things were at, and he understood what needed to happen to try to turn the program.

We still have to play the games. At this point in the year, you talk about those things. I don't know what real advantage it gives you except you've got to win three games instead of four.

I thought last year's team that we played, they were by far the most physical team we played against. They're even more physical than they were a year ago.

We thought the three-point line would be critical at both ends. It's the great equalizer in college basketball and we held them without one for (nearly) 35 minutes. And I thought Lee Humphrey shot the ball very well.

I'm just happy for everybody. I'm very blessed and very thankful for the opportunity to coach these kids. I thought whoever attacked the other team's defense better was going to have the best chance of winning the game.

As a coach, all you're trying to do is feed them stuff that's going to help them grow faster. You hope that they take their vegetables, and they grow up healthy and they understand. And some of them do and, you know what, it certain situations they have.

I laugh when people say they are better off without him. He is one of the most dominant frontline players in the SEC.

Our guys have to be able to handle that pressure. There are a lot of distractions. There is a lot of tugging and a lot of things you have to deal with that are different from the regular season. I want them to enjoy where they are at because it is the pinnacle of college basketball to get to this point. At the same time, you have to keep the focus there and put yourself in position to play the best basketball.

He's healthy now. He's going into his junior year, ... He needs to play and perform and contribute to our team now that he is an upperclassman.

Auburn is a very difficult team to play against, because they take so many threes. When they make them like they did - and I thought they made some awful difficult shots - they're going to hang around and play with anybody.

I felt bad for these kids. The past kept being brought back to them. They weren't part of it. They had nothing to do with Manhattan or Creighton.

I would say that our basketball team is totally different. Every guy on our team is playing a completely different role than they did a year ago.

I don't know there's a clear-cut favorite right now. If you're going to look at what's happened, LSU has been the most impressive in our league. You're dealing with depth issues for everybody, you're going to be dealing with fatigue issues, you're going to have to deal with foul trouble, you're going to have to deal with playing three teams in a row and you have to deal and move from one day to the next.

This has been a great place. It's hard to believe it's been almost 10 years.

I look at North Carolina, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas, Arizona. The trick is you have to get in on a consistent basis. That's the whole trick because if you don't get in, you can't do anything.

I was concerned. I just wanted to get through that stretch even and not to have to bring our big guys back in and get more foul trouble. I thought that Garrett and Brett came in and actually did a pretty good job for us.

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.

He's got great ability and great talent. But the best part of his game is he's a great competitor, has great enthusiasm and he plays to exhaustion.

I thought we were basically manhandled. I don't think the score is indicative of how much they outplayed us in this game. They played harder than us. They deserved it more than us.

In our league with the quality of teams and playing four consecutive nights, I think for any team it's a disadvantage. But you go into the tournament with the hand you're dealt.

This team is just different. Different kids, different time, different everything.

Those three losses, to be honest, I felt pretty encouraged. I just didn't want our guys to get down. I wanted them to see 'Hey listen, this is what we're giving up, and we're losing in overtime and losing by 2 to 3 points. Imagine if we shore this up, how good we can be.' That was kind of the message I tried to give them during that time.

I believe that based on our league, and we've played everyone right now once, they're as good as everybody in the league. Alabama probably deserves to be in along with a lot of other people.

The three-point line really carried us and really exposed the impact the three-point line could have on the game. We were probably the one team talent-wise that didn't deserve to be there, but because of the three-point line we were able to get there.

It's early, but it looks as though Tennessee is a very good offensive team. I've always felt like they've had talent. Major Wingate and Andre Patterson are improved offensive players. They are a team that likes to play in transition, like us. Both teams are going to get up and down the floor and do what they like to do.

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.

The 3-point line is a great equalizer in college basketball.

I'm not even worried about that. I don't even focus on that. I don't talk about that. That's completely out of our hands. That's the selection committee. And that has to do with us winning basketball games.

I didn't feel comfortable leaving him in there, but it had never been done before at Florida. If it had been done three or four times, I probably would have taken him out. Our players really wanted to see him do it.

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.

It was a great win against a very good team. From start to finish, LSU has really had an unbelievable season, individually and as a team. They've been the most consistent team all year long.

It's very, very obvious watching him play that he's not as reckless and daring and playing like he's capable of. I don't know if there's a level of uncertainty when he plants or jumps or runs, or if he just feels like the pain is so severe that he just can't do what he needs to do.

He was a great guy. It was such a tragedy, what happened. He touched a lot of lives. I know with St. Francis, he and (athletic director) Randy Maris had a lot of plans, he wanted to give Bud the chance to build a basketball program and unfortunately it didn't work out. At least his family, his kids, will have something they can hold to and remember him by.

I think we've got a different group of kids. I believe in my heart that all those guys will be back. They're having too much fun, they're enjoying playing together too much.

Corey had a very good game shooting the basketball.

I derive a lot of pleasure watching these kids play. We don't have guys in the locker room talking about not scoring enough points or not getting enough shots. They play the right way. They really do.

Tonight, we won because of our defense and they didn't shoot the ball particularly well. I would say it was a combination, that we did at times challenge their shots, and there were maybe also some shots they just didn't knock down.

Without question, Ryan is good enough to play anywhere in the country. And he's going to continue to get better.

My personal opinion, after talking with these kids and their families, is they will be back next year.

Lee gets a lot of credit for his perimeter shooting. Forget about the shooting part of it, we've just lost maybe our best overall defender. Lee is our most consistent, most disciplined, best defender.

He just felt like where he was at physically it was best for Walter to start. I think that takes a kid with unbelievable character, a kid that cares about the team, a kid who has started every single game since he's been here walked into my office and said, 'Coach, Walter needs to start, I need to come off the bench.' . . . I don't know how many sophomores in college would come in and say that.

Playing at a neutral site, you can throw all of the seeds out the window.

What this goes to show you is that in our league, coming in with a team that was 1-4 against a team that was perceived as being a top team, we were basically manhandled today.

I've never gotten into any of that stuff. If we win basketball games, our seed will continue to improve. If we don't win basketball games, our seed will not improve.

It is so hard when you have departures all the time to stay at the highest level. It's almost like coaching junior college now, and people want to level to stay up high.

Everybody talks about the end result. You're playing for the national championship. I think the only experience I tried to use from 2000 was, you've got to want this night to last as long as you can. You've got to want them to put more time on the clock. You've got to love playing.

I was getting frustrated watching balls go up from the three-point line, when those guys are standing 1-on-1 in the post with a guy 6-6 guarding them. It's hard sometimes. I'm constantly preaching to (Green and guard Lee Humphrey), 'When you're open, let it go.' Sometimes you have to change your thought processes.

Everybody's role on the team is a lot different than a year ago. For us, right now, it's really a one-game tournament. We've got to play to the best of our ability on Friday and hopefully advance and be able to play on Saturday.

It was good to see those guys get rewarded out there. Our normal rotation guys enjoyed those guys' success on the floor.