Billy Donovan Three Quotations

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.

I believe there are three ligaments around the shoulder area where he got injured. Apparently if you tear more than one, you have to have surgery to get back the stability in the shoulder. He only tore a ligament, so he didn't need surgery and there were no fractures in there.

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.

I thought there were times (against South Carolina) when guys created off the dribble and didn't find him. I thought he should have gotten up 10 or 11 shots. There was three or four or five times when our guys missed him. Our team has got to do a better job of recognizing when he's open and getting him the basketball.

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.

There are three ligaments around the shoulder area where he got injured and apparently if you tear more than one you have to have surgery to get back the stability in his shoulder. I know he tore one ligament, but he didn't need surgery and there were no fractures in there.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The last three or four days have been an incredible ride, but nothing like this.

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.

After practice, he'll thank me three or four times before we leave the gym.

For a while there, everybody talked about if you really want to win at the college level, you have to have two or three pros on your team. I'm not so sure that's the case any more.

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 do not believe there is any clear-cut favorite right now. LSU has been the most impressive in our league, but you're dealing with depth issues for everybody, you're dealing with fatigue issues, you're going to have to deal with foul trouble, you're going to have to deal with playing three games in a row.