“When I first started coaching, one of the worst things that I think I heard was ‘It will be O.K.’ I would wonder, ‘How the hell is it going to be O.K.?’ The worst word in the English language is ‘hope.’”

Good basketball always starts with good defense!

My overall point is that ‘one and dones’ are not healthy for college basketball. I should not have made it personal to Kentucky and its players and I apologize.

Offense is not equal opportunity

At one point, I said to the officials that you guys haven’t called walking for 20 years, now you don’t know what it is. When you call walking, you’re about half right.

If you’re not careful, you can get a grossly over-inflated opinion about your popularity.

Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one.

Practice structure determines success.

The biggest difficulty in getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

We should not have to push you to work hard, you should work hard because you want to be a great player.

I’ve never felt my job was to win basketball games – rather, that the essence of my job as a coach was to do everything I could to give my players the background necessary to succeed in life.

I’m not sure sports writing is an art.

Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court.

As I’ve said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been involved in it: coaches, administrators – not recently – fans and nobody, nobody any more so than students over the years.

It has always been my thought that the most important single ingredient to success in athletics or life is discipline. I have many times felt that this word is the most ill-defined in all of our language.

I sit and wonder why no one uses the shot fake. The shot fake, when used correctly, can eliminate a defender

You are never going to be driven anywhere worthwhile, but you sure as hell drive yourself to a lot of great places. It is up to you to drive yourself there.

I never drop a player I only make changes.

People need to know that by donating, coaching, and just lending support, anyone can become part of the wonderful global family.

When I was coaching with the Patriots, the players pulled a practical joke and I said, ‘Do you think I’m Charlie the Tuna, like a sucker?’ After that, they called me Tuna.

I was a pretty good coach and working with marketing was like coaching.

A successful coach is one who is still coaching.

If a Coach is determined to stay in the coaching profession.

He who controlleth the backboard, controlleth the game.

Your defense will save you on the nights that your offense isn’t working.