Billy Donovan Quotes (367 Quotes)

I hope the people at Arizona State realize what just happened. When you talk about the complete and total package of a coach, he's it.

I think the one thing that should be talked about more is our guys' will and passion to win. They've really stayed focused on winning. ... We really didn't get a lot of breaks. We had to grind it out and find a way to win.

He's a player-of-the-year candidate, for sure. For me, their whole team is a concern because of their size, their depth and their athleticism.

We didn't want to put David into the game, but we didn't have much of a choice. Anthony (associate coach Anthony Grant) was out of eligibility.

Obviously as a freshman, without question he was not only one of the best freshmen in the league, but was one of the better players in the league. He's got great size. He can shoot over top of people. He makes every difficult shots.

I feel bad for these kids that the past has to be brought up to them. Some of them weren't even here. Some of them weren't even playing. The only constant is me. I just hope people write about these kids today.

He'll thank me four or five times walking off the floor. I don't expect to be thanked. That's the way he is.

I got choked up. When 19 years passes by and you go back, to hear the people cheering the way they did and to honor me that way, I was extremely humbled. I was shocked, taken back, and I didn't expect anything like that.

The surgery went well. He wasn't at practice because he was dealing with so many things medically. . . . I'll probably have a better understanding maybe (today).

You could see then that they had the elements of a good team with the balance of their scoring and their ability to defend.

We'll have to deal with being ranked one, two or three in the country. These are the kids I would love to deal with those challenges with.

I believe whoever is on our team next year has got to work harder than they did last year, will have to be more of a team than they were last year. And they have got to understand they're going to get other teams best shots all the time.

Lee might be one of the best shooters I've coached, but what he doesn't get enough credit for is his ability to defend on his perimeter. He's probably our most consistent defender in terms of keeping guys in front of him and challenging shots.

When it comes to being around the media or adults or people who look at him differently he's very shy and very cautious, ... If he doesn't know you it takes a while for Jason to trust you.

They are very, very disciplined with the way they play defense. They help each other extremely well. They like to take you out of what you want to do. They're very, very physical.

The reason he shot it so far to the left was he never really got his left arm up and he shot it across his body. This is going to be another one to two weeks before he's back to probably feeling healthy. I would think that he would be available against South Carolina. How many minutes What type of role Will he be able to get back to his shooting form I'm hopeful, but I'm not counting on that.

Our options are getting smaller and slimmer. We've got to make due with what we've got. We've had some things we've had to deal with.

I wouldn't classify our team with the way we play defense as a shot-blocking team. I think one of the things you always leave yourself vulnerable to, any time you have big people leaving the floor, is offensive rebounding and foul trouble.

You have to do a great job evaluating those kids maybe in the top 25 to 100. So we could (eventually) have some junior and senior classes.

I don't know if I would necessarily say we're just tougher. But we have the ability to play more physical and tougher than maybe we did a year ago.

In scouting George Mason, they had been shooting 33 percent on their 3-pointers all year and as much as 42 percent. We knew we had to control their perimeter shooting. I thought we did a great job of shutting them down and keeping them off-balance.

Right now Tennessee and LSU on both sides are the teams that have been the most consistent.

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.

I'm mesmerized. I love watching them play.

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 don't have the luxury of making a mistake on the backboard, and we make mistake after mistake. For every time one of our guys gets praise for blocking a shot, when they don't, they give up position by leaving the floor too early.

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.

I didn't think that Vanderbilt's game plan was to come in and back off Corey. I didn't think that Corey was being left open on purpose, I think it was through our ball movement. He got some looks, and he knocked them down.

I said to those guys, we're doing a thing now and I'm probably going to be asked some questions beforehand andor after and I said what I would like to do is say something. They were like, 'Yeah, yeah Coach, that would be great.' Now the whole thing they did I didn't know. I just told them I was going to paint a picture and say I don't know what those guys' futures were.

I thought Chris Lofton had a phenomenal night. He made some very difficult shots with people hanging on him. But that is the type of shooter he is, so you have got to give him a lot of credit. We (Florida) did a pretty good job defending them - they only shot 31 percent from the 3-point line - but he certainly made tough ones.

I thought Corey Brewer's injury, when it happened, was a major problem. I never anticipated him coming back in the game. But that is the type of competitor he is.

We really felt like it was going to be hard for us to play the whole game man-to-man. Mississippi centers Dwayne Curtis and Jeremy Parnell are just too big up front, and they fatigue you and wear you down. The Rebels go deep into the shot clock ... so we tried to mix in some zones, some different looks to try to change and keep them off balance.

Arkansas' fans do a great job in this building. It's a shame the weather caused a big problem -- this was the smallest crowd I've ever seen here.

I've often said the greatest equalizer in college basketball is the 3-point line. They outscored us by 12 from the 3-point line. Our inability to limit them to one shot and inability to guard the 3-point line cost us. Anytime a team can come into your building and shoot 53 percent from the field and 47 percent from the 3-point line, you have to have a very, very good night on offense.

I really feel like the only game where we were outfought was at South Carolina. For whatever reason, we didn't play how we normally do.

These guys are not worried about that NBA draft. They would love to play in the NBA and be impact players but with them it's not about just about getting to the NBA, it's about becoming the best they can become as players. I think there is a great level o

He's a problem for anyone because he can rebound, he can score because of their great spacing and he's a very underrated passer out of the post. John (Thompson) has the luxury of playing him and going big or taking him off the floor and going quick. They can go from one extreme to the next because of their balance, so it makes them tough to prepare for.

In the NCAA tournament, there are two things people love to see -- a Cinderella story and a team that is so powerful and explosive they look invincible.

I hope we don't jinx him.

He doesn't really like this attention.

I didn't feel this way after Tennessee. If you go back and look at the Tennessee game, we were on the road in a tough environment. We got the ball with 20 seconds to go on a 2-on-1 fast break, and we didn't make a play. We gave ourselves a chance to win. I felt like tonight we didn't give ourselves a chance to win.

I'd say right now he's not going to play. I don't know how his treatment is going to go and how well he's going to respond. He was very, very sore (Sunday) morning. He came in several times for treatment. ... He's not capable of playing right now.

It's not about me, how young I am. I don't know all the stats. It's about the people you coach all the time. I get pleasure seeing the players celebrate.

We have to deal with what's at hand right now.

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'll definitely travel. I'd say, right now, that he's not going to play.

That's just what they want to do. I think they're having a lot of fun I think they're different types of kids. They're not prepared to make the next step right now. They want to be here, they want to play, they want to be together was a group. They want to stay to play together as a team.

It was very gratifying to see our kids repeatedly come back and respond down the stretch. Noah was great. He blocked shots. I thought our big guys were very active.

The biggest thing for David is to make good decisions and play very hard. There are some games, athletically, where what David can do is stretch the defense and really shoot it. So, we have to make sure in this game (Ole Miss) that we have him in the right match-up situation because they have so much quickness.

He never has a bad day. He is an unbelievable kid. He has a great disposition. He's intelligent. And he's very, very enthusiastic.