Here is a collection of various thoughts and quotes I have collected over the years. A huge portion of these ideas come from Jerry Wainwright at DePaul.
• Rebounding is the epitome of effort areas. The team that fights for position and aggressively pursues the ball off the boards is eventually going to be the team that wins.
• Adapt not adopt.
• A coach must possess mental toughness. A coach must be ready to practice every day. The players realize when a coach is not prepared. The top coaches at every level are the ones that are mentally prepared every day.
• Building character is the real commitment to winning. A coach who doesn’t stand by his convictions is doomed to be a big loser, regardless of his win-loss record.
• 5 Most Important Factors in Winning
1. Play your tail off. Be tougher physically and mentally than the opponent.
2. You control the tempo of the game
3. Make a thorough game preparation in which you plan to disrupt your opponents’ offense and exploit their defense.
4. Force turnovers and limit your own.
5. Get rid of the high maintenance players—never compromise on this.
• Ability is what you are capable of doing, motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it. – Lou Holtz
• It is the loose ends with which men hang themselves.
• The major part of my job isn’t to tell the players what to do. The most important thing I do is to create a setting for them to work in. I think that is the key to any coach’s job—creating an environment that’s organized, free of distractions, ready.
• Of all games, basketball is one in which you can never show weakness. Everyone knows how to spot and exploit them.
• A team has to be a melting pot. It’s going to face a lot of different challenges and it has to have a lot of potential responses. A few sinners mixed in with the saints can create a powerful brew.
• Hustle isn’t a god-given talent, like quick feet. It’s something that a person develops through sheer will. It’s a state of mind.
• Any team can be a miracle team. The catch is that you have to go out and work for your miracles. Effort is what ultimately separates journeymen players from impact players and the one year champs from the teams of lasting greatness.
• Defense Concepts:
- Contain
- Protect
- Contest
• Heredity is a splendid phenomenon that relieves us of responsibility of our shortcomings.
• Bench players dream of having a hot game and catapulting into an expanded role. The truth is that a reserve has to accumulate a lot of minutes of glory before his role expands. There has to be an attitude of backing up that glory with intense showings in practice. A reserve has to be patient.
• You have to have a player who is smart, who might be limited in certain skills, but who has that spark that can incite and inspire teammates. That player has to play each minute like it’s the last minute of his career. He never paces himself; his role is to be an inspirational player.
• A great role player is really just as valuable as a star, and almost hard to find and develop.
• Keep the faith in times of difficulty. Every team goes through a period of unusual difficulty. If you’re confident that what you’re doing is right, then just work at it harder.
• It’s getting so everyone wants to harvest, but nobody wants to plow.
• To love what you do and feel that it matters – how could anything be more fun?
• A great team isn’t built by just having top talent. It matters how these top talents combine with each other. Attitude and chemistry are the factors that kick people up to higher levels of winning, no matter what talent they have. A great collection of talent with unbalanced chemistry and poor attitude can get beaten by teams of lesser talent.
• Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anyone else expects of you. Never excuse yourself.
• To have a great season requires not only a big commitment but a long and lasting commitment.
• Nothing is carved in stone, you can change anything in your life is you want it bad enough.
• Face it, nobody owes you a living; what you achieve or fail to achieve in your lifetime is directly related to what you do or fail to do.
• Life is good, but basketball is better. — Lou Carnessca
• All coaches have a powerful ally, but most are afraid to use it—the bench. — John Wooden
• You can modify behavior. You cannot rehabilitate character.
• Anybody who gets away with something will come back to get away with a little bit more.
• I think that a player with talent has a moral obligation to fulfill it, and I will not relent on my own responsibility — Vince Lombardi
