Billy Donovan Con Quotations

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.

That's something we'll have to look at on film. You look at the last two minutes of the game but sometimes you don't look at how it got to that point. The offensive rebounds Tennessee had in the second half really hurt us.

I really thought that maybe they were not as fresh coming down the stretch. That was kind of our hope in the second half, that maybe we could try to wear them down because they were really sticking with their seven guys.

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.

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.

I don't think our guys are upset or bothered by it. That's something that's beyond their control. People can talk about the George Mason story and rightfully so. It's a great story that I think will inspire many people outside of college basketball.

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.

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.

We will need to be concerned more with providing help and doing things that will take them out of their offensive flow, because if their big guys get second and third opportunities it can really become a problem for us.

I thought we played well on the defensive end to only be down at 11 at the half with the way we shot the ball. As well as we played defensively in the first half, we didn't do the things we needed to on the boards and on defense in the second half.

I think you could see how hard it is to play back-to-back nights. I didn't like our defensive intensity in the first half. In the second half, we did a much, much better job.

Maybe the crowd has something to do with it. I don't know what the reason would be. There are some teams, they feel more pressure at home and they play looser on the road. There are some teams that feel a lot more confident at home and they aren't as confident on the road. What gets into it, creeps into the mindset, I'm not really sure. I wish I had the answer.

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.

If that happened, I'd be really disappointed in our team. We're playing against a team that really out-performed us a couple of weeks ago in Columbia. The final score says 6 points, but we were down by 15 in the second half, we were dominated in the game. I would hope our guys would be excited about having the opportunity to compete again and play again.

If someone wants to say, 'What Florida has done to this point in time means absolutely nothing... the regular season doesn't mean anything... the Southeastern Conference tournament championship means nothing.' That's fine.

There are going to be times when he makes crazy decisions with the ball. But he's such a fast, quick, physical defender that I have a lot of confidence putting him in there.

We could have prevented them from storming the floor at Arkansas, you know? Win the game. We could have prevented them from storming the floor at Tennessee. Win the game. . . . The only thing I would be concerned about is the safety of our guys.

I'm concerned a little bit that it may go through our team. If anybody does come back positive, we'll try to start them on some antibiotics. This is the time of year, but I don't use that as an excuse. . . . We all have to deal with challenges and different things that happen throughout the course of the year.

I was concerned about trying to double him. I wanted him to score and to take those other guys out of the game the best we could. It worked out for us.

I was a little bit concerned just because he was throwing up, and it was several times throughout the course of the night. He didn't get very much sleep.

We did a much better job moving the ball inside out in the second half.

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.

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.

Our bench has done good. I really believe if I could have control of when they shoot the ball, our bench making shots and giving our bench production, we would do it. But I'm not concerned about that. I'm more concerned about the type of shots we're getting.

Our bench coming in has to have a little more confidence when they're out there, that there's not going to be a drop off.

Right now, Tennessee is a team that's in control of its destiny.

Sometimes there's things that are out of your control in these games.

We're not at all telling our guys when the shot is up, you need to block shots. We're more concerned about challenging shots and then being able to block out and rebound to start the break. That's where our focus has been.

This is going to be the most time that we have had off to get ready for an opponent since December. I am hopeful that during that time that we can continue to improve and turn the focus on ourselves.

I'm hoping that has carried over and will continue to carry over. He just needs to let it fly. It's really that simple for that team.

When he's letting it go and shooting with confidence like that, it makes us a different team. Some days, it might not be his night, but we need for him to continue to be aggressive.

I believe Corey will play, how productive I don't know. Lee I just don't know. There's not going to be a constant banging (as opposed to football), so I'm hopeful of getting him back as soon as possible.

I've been in this league a long time and I never feel like the SEC is given its due. If you look around the country right now, there are leagues out there that are very top heavy, but there are not many out there that have the balance that our conference has. If you look at what some of our teams have done to quality opponents outside the league, it's pretty impressive.

In the second half, it's a little bit different because your point guard is coming at you. But there is no question that it's a different environment. It's a different place to play in.

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.

We were able to work inside out. We had a little better balance in the second half and we still continued to defend the three. That was a big concern for myself going into this game.

I have confidence putting Walter and David in the game. I'm not going to not play those guys. They deserve an opportunity to play. They may not always play well, but they're going to play hard.

I was hopeful going into second half. I thought maybe they were starting to get a little worn down. We were hopeful maybe their shots wouldn't go in and maybe they wouldn't rebound as well.

I think I'm going to have to look at some things from the recruiting standpoint. We have not had the level of continuity in this program like Kentucky has had, in terms of having three, four seniors every year.

I'm not really concerned about that with us at this point. I'm concerned about us going into each game being the best we can be.

I thought we left a lot of points on the board in the first half, because we had 11 turnovers and we were shooting 52 or 53 percent from the field. Second half we only turned it over three times and we shot 52 percent from the field and that's why we had a 52-point half.

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.

It was great to see him shoot the basketball and let it go with the confidence he did. The biggest thing I look at with Lee is the confidence level he's shooting the ball with. Tonight, he was just letting it go and shooting it with a great deal of confidence.

That's a really, really interesting question because I've always been a big, big believer that things that have happened in the past, negatively or positively, don't affect your future. I believe I have to work harder now as a head coach, and what I mean by that is we've got to try to continue to recruit good, quality kids.

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.

We missed a lot of easy baskets and missed a lot of opportunities. We had decent looks and couldn't convert in a lot of situations.

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.

The second half was a back-and-forth basketball game. Give Arkansas credit. They made some plays and their kids played hard and I thought it was a great college basketball game that both teams had a chance to win at times.

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.

I was a little concerned with our foul trouble and our turnovers late. In the second half we did a much better job of taking care of the basketball.

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.

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.

We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. . . . I thought both teams had fatigue settle in as the game went on.

We shot ourselves in the foot a lot of times in the second half. In the second half, the first (six) possessions, we turned it over four times.

I think it's a great comparison. Bobby Jones was a great runner in transition, he was a great athlete on the floor. I believe as David continues to grow, his shooting will get better. He's a very versatile guy.

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.

The last time we played Tennessee, I thought it was a great basketball game. Both teams played well. It was a tie score with 20 seconds to go. Both teams played a pretty balanced game. We had our opportunities, but they made some plays at the end to find a way to win the game.

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.

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).

I know little about what is going on at Kentucky. I've seen them play almost not at all. Tubby is a wonderful man and a terrific coach who will continue to succeed.

I can tell you that these kids have a great deal of love and concern and care for one another.

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.

It is an emotional, draining year. And that's always a concern for you as a coach, especially when you are dealing with guys who go through it for the first time.

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'm not even concerned about that right now. I'm more worried about playing LSU (Saturday at home). Even before this game, Tennessee was in control of its own destiny.

We have been right there. There have been some things that have been out of our control a little. I think our guys have put themselves in positions to win, and you are not going to have them all go your way. . . . What our team has done to this point in time and the way they have battled, I think it's pretty impressive.

Offensively, pretty much the entire game, I thought we played very well. But we played an exceptional half defensively in the second half. We were just fair at best in the first half.

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.

I wouldn't say we're a loose team as much as we're a confident team.

They generally come out and say, Billy if you continue on, you're going to get one. It's very clear where you're at.

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.