Billy Donovan Good Quotations

We're looking forward in playing in what is a great, great event. We don't know who our opponent will be, but we know it will be a very good team and we know that this is a one-and-done situation.

We're a different team. I don't know if it's better or good or what it is, but it's different with different roles. I don't know how much we'll take from last year's game. It's a new day, new season, new opportunity.

There are a lot of good point guards in this league.

One of the biggest things to stop is momentum. There are always teams that can get on a roll. Some people say that if you have won 15 games in a row, it's good to take a loss into the (NCAA) tournament. Other people say that if you lose a game, your confidence level is lower, that you are not going into the tournament playing your best. I always say that just because you lose, you can still play well. You can get beat by a better team.

He's as good a shooter as anyone I've coached since I've been here. He can line up in shoot with anybody in the United States of America.

Kevin does a good job moving him around and creating shots. He's got a very good feel and he's a good, hard cutter.

I think it probably means something to their players because they understand what they're representing. A lot of times, it's the past players that they know are watching them that gives them a level of expectation of the way they're supposed to perform. I think that's a good thing for a program.

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 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 we had some good looks, some good plays.

I thought the release by one of them there in the second half at the end of the game, his follow through did not look good on it and it came up short. Lee was in here (Sunday) night getting shots up. I've obviously got to be intelligent here because I've got a player burden in Brewer and we're down to eight scholarship guys. It's not like every day Lee can run and bang and go up and down the floor.

I went off pretty good at halftime. I was getting frustrated watching balls go up from the 3-point line when guys are standing in the post with a 6-6 guy guarding them. They finally got the message.

I went off pretty good at halftime. It's hard if you're not making shots to get off to a good start. We could have very, very easily have been up 15 or 20 in the first half.

Our guys needed to be taught why we were losing, what was causing them to lose. I wanted them to see this is what we're giving up, and we're losing in overtime, we're losing by two or three points. Imagine if we shore this up, how good we can be.

Our guys have done a pretty good job so far of keeping a level of humility and trying to get better each day.

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.

Our starters didn't play a lot of minutes, and it was good to see us score as many points as we did with those guys not playing. For our team right now, playing this midweek game before getting back into the (Southeastern) conference at Tennessee (Saturday) was good for us.

Our bench really did some good things, some encouraging things. That really kind of sparked our main guys when they came back in there late in the first half.

Our bench really did some good things, some encouraging things.

Our basketball team this year has played with energy; they've played with passion and enthusiasm. And this time of year, those things will keep you around and keep you in the game, but they're not good enough to win the game.

Our blocks in the Miami game came the right way. They came with our big guys playing good post defense, moving their feet. When someone from Miami committed to shooting the basketball, most of our blocked shots were on the ball.

Playing hard and playing passionately isn't good enough to win.

My biggest thing with the crowd coming on the court was just in terms of the players' safety. It looks good on TV, but you're always concerned or worried that there is going to be some type of altercation.

We're blocking more shots than we have in the last several years, but I don't think as a coaching staff we're saying this is a point of emphasis for our defense. We don't want to be a team that's just jumping up in the air trying to block shots because there are a lot of things that happen that are not good if you don't block it. So we just have to be selective.

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.

We didn't do a good enough job of defending them in the first half. They were beating us off the dribble and creating opportunities to knock down the threes. In the second half, we did such a better job of keeping the ball out of the paint (for Kentucky).

This will be our second time to face South Carolina this season. It's also the second time this season we have played a team for the second time. They played with great emotion the last time we played each other. We got off to a good start early, but they were the better team that night. It was a six-point win for them, but they had us down 15 points at one point. This game will be a challenge for us. They have competitive kids and they totally out performed us. They beat us in every facet of the game. The challenge to our team is to take it one game to the next. Our last time against them is over. Our last home game is over.

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

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.

Fifteen years ago, there would have been no way a team like George Mason could go to a Final Four. It just goes to show ... how many good players are out there.

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.

To me, he's involved in every aspect of their offense. He can score off the dribble and he's gotten better at finding his own shot. And he's probably as good as any point guard in this league in terms of knowing when to shoot, when not to shoot, when to go inside and when to pull it out.

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.

We weren't good enough. We weren't built to make a deep run in the tournament.

We did a pretty good job of staying down and timing it.

We have entered a stage right now in college basketball where 15 years ago, it would have been maybe totally no way George Mason could go to the Final Four. It just goes to show how many good coaches there are out there, how many good players there are out there. On any given night, anybody can beat anybody.

Corey was a definite spark for us at the start of the second half. He made a couple baskets to get us going and he did some good things defensively.

Corey had a very good game shooting the basketball.

Flat out, the past several years -- to be totally honest -- we weren't good enough to advance. They didn't advance far enough in the tournament because maybe some of the past teams weren't built to make a deep run in the tournament.

Flat-out, the last several years, being totally honest, we weren't good enough to advance.

They appear to be playing very well. I've always felt like they have good personnel there, and it will be a great environment. As highly ranked as we are going into Knoxville, I think it's pretty clear the way both programs feel about each other. We know it's going to be a hostile environment.

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.

Quite honestly, I'm not concerned about that. I'm more worried about making sure that this team understands what's a good shot, what's a bad shot, going into the season.

They're so hard to get the ball inside against. But I felt if we could just get the ball up against the backboard, we had a good chance at getting offensive rebounds. It was good to see Al and Jo play the way they did.

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.

It wasn't the best shot. You're not going to always get a great look with the clock winding down. We didn't probably do as good a job finishing the play as I would have liked.

It's a hard play. He had two people with him and he was able to get in the lane and see the basket. He probably thought he had a good shot at it.

It just goes to show you that you're not as good as you think you are, and you're not as bad as you think you are.

It just goes to show you how many good coaches there are out there, how many good players there are out there. On any given night anybody can beat anybody. George Mason certainly has proven that in this NCAA Tournament over the last two weeks.

It just goes to show you how good our league is and how balanced it is.

It's good to see him do well because he was non-existent at South Carolina. He's having a phenomenal year. I'm hoping he can continue to evolve and move forward. We missed his rebounding last game, but he did a terrific job on both ends of the floor today. It's good to see him learning.

It's good to see him do well because he was nonexistent at South Carolina.

That's pretty impressive. He has a good understanding of how to get fouled.

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.

The best way to describe this team is we have a very good motor, ... We have high-energy people. We have a lot of youthful enthusiasm.

It was a great college basketball game with both teams going back and forth and they were able to take the lead on a play. We got Lee a pretty good shot and if he makes it, we're up by one. It was a little bit short. I thought it had a great chance to go in.

It was a good win for us. Vanderbilt is a very good basketball team. Vanderbilt is a very difficult team to play against. The biggest thing is that our basketball team is still learning. Vanderbilt did some things to us at first where we had to settle in and we picked it up, certainly in the second half, but the first 10 minutes were tough.

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 was good to see us score so many points without those guys playing so much.

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

They were really showing signs of becoming a very good team. The last 32 minutes we were outplayed, out-coached and out-everything by South Carolina.

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.

In recruiting, I don't ever feel like all of a sudden guys are now jumping to come to Florida. You still have to work hard and do a good job of evaluating and making sure you get guys who you feel would be best fit for the program and fit in well with teammates.

I really don?t believe that seeding means a whole lot or makes a whole lot of difference anymore. It used to be a time where you got that No. 1 or No. 2 seed and you felt pretty good about trying to get to that Elite Eight. I think those times have changed.

I look at who we're playing as a basketball team and don?t get wrapped up in what the perception is about their team. They're a very, very good basketball team that has beaten Connecticut, Michigan State, North Carolina.

I have to give Georgetown a lot of credit. They did a good job defensively. I thought we had some looks coming in and around the basket. We were very, very fortunate to win. It could have gone either way. I think the Georgetown kids played a great game.

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 really feel bad for Lee, because Lee is a good kid. He is one guy who is so conscientious in the way he lives his life. He eats correctly, he gets to bed early and he is at every tutor and every study hall. He is such a perfect kid in a lot of ways. For him, it bothers me as a coach that he can't be out there.

He's probably never going to get to a point where he feels great the rest of the season. But I think his confidence level is high. It's good to see him take the amount of shots he took. He put up 11 3s on the road. It was great to see him confidently shoot the basketball and it was great to see him move to the next shot, even when he missed a couple in a row.

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.

I didn't think our guards did a very good job of blocking out. There were a couple of key situations in the game where our guards didn't even attempts to block out.

I don't think that we have played against anyone with his size and athletic ability. He is very impressive because he is so skilled. He is a good passer which is impressive for a guy who is 7-foot-2. He runs, he catches and he alters shots. You just don't see a lot of players in college basketball like him. This will be a unique game for us to play against a guy like him.

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.

For our basketball team, it was a tale of two halves. In the first half, our guys were very, very impatient on offense. We didn't have the ball movement and the player movement we needed to have. We had good ball movement and player movement and we shot 57 percent in the second half. If we would have played similar to that and rebounded like we did in the first half, it would have been a different game. We couldn't put it all together.

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