Practice gotta be harder than the games and it never is unless you want it to be as a player. The coach can't drive that
John CalipariIf I walk in a home and a kid disrespects a woman, his mother or grandmother, then I am out... I wont recruit them
John CalipariIt has to be fun for you when you see somebody at a distance and you take their opinion of what they're going to be like and then you go interview them, and they're totally different. You're like, wow, I didn't expect that.
John CalipariI'm playing the guys who are going to fight. If you're not into this, I'm going to someone else
John CalipariThe only thing I pay attention to with free throws is what a guy does in the final four minutes of a game. If you can improve players' self-esteem and confidence, get them to relax, teach visualization and routine, they will shoot as well, or better, with the pressure on.
John CalipariIf we're going to stay the gold standard, we're going to stay ahead of the curve, well, then, when people try to do the things we're doing, we're trying to do more. We're trying to do something different. We're coming at it a different way. That, for me, to be honest, is the fun part.
John CalipariThe best players I've coached make really hard things look easy. Like you may say, well, that was easy, and then, well, go try it. You think it's so easy, go ahead and do it.
John CalipariYou'd better make sure that you know you can make a difference, and if it's a difference you want to make, is there another way to do the same thing, and what's the down side? What's the repercussions if I do this? To my career, to my family, whatever else.
John CalipariFor our children, you want them to build their own self-esteem and their own self-confidence. For your own child. You don't want it to come from somebody else because, if it does, that same person can take it away. You want them to learn the grind.
John CalipariIf I ever tell the same story twice, just laugh and roll with it because, when you get older, you start doing that kind of stuff.
John CalipariI would enjoy the fact that I had a team that won a national title, but I would be disappointed that none of the kids got drafted because that's not how it's supposed to work.
John CalipariIt's not just about working hard, it's about working together. You have to care more about the team than you do about yourself
John CalipariThe biggest thing is you cannot be afraid to miss the game-winning shot. It's not that you want to make it; it's that you're not afraid to miss it. You're not afraid to make a play and it go wrong. You have to have amnesia. You're not afraid to make a play and it go wrong.
John CalipariHaving a kind heart, you care about everybody else. You don't eat everything. Don't be a big. People in the community, be nice. As coaches, we want to see guys develop those kind of things, take those things with them when they leave our programs.
John CalipariWhen you're trying to make somebody the best version of themselves, you have to keep defining that over a period of time because sometimes it changes.
John CalipariYou do things other people cannot do, so just stay in the moment as you improve the other areas.
John CalipariWe can't have one group that oversees everything and then they define what amateurism is.
John CalipariThe people that are around me that give me ideas that I pass along or we try, the one thing I never do, I never give credit to anybody but myself. So I take all of the ideas. So everybody thinks that all of the ideas are mine.
John CalipariA great defensive effort. The one thing we have to do is make it hard for people to beat us. We're not worried about winning and losing, we just have to make the game hard
John CalipariThere's no other state, none, that's as connected to their basketball program as this one. Because those other states have other programs. Michigan has Michigan State, California has UCLA, North Carolina has Duke. It's Kentucky throughout this whole state, and that's what makes us unique.
John CalipariYou better educate yourself. You don't stand in the front of the line unless you're up there because you know everything that's involved.
John CalipariThe hardest thing for a basketball player to do is dribble two really hard dribbles. You are flying, and then pull up and shoot a ball from 15, 17 feet. It's the hardest thing in the game.
John Calipari