Pat Summitt Quotes

I just think they were just a team that really enjoyed the process and allowed our coaching staff to enjoy the process.

The absolute heart of loyalty is to value those people who tell you the truth, not just those people who tell you what you want to hear. In fact, you should value them most. Because they have paid you the compliment of leveling with you and assuming you can handle it.

She taught me that it's ok to let down your guard and allow your players to get to know you. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.

I never ask Candace Parker if she was thinking about leaving because I never had any reason to believe she would. I just kept the focus on the team and on Candace and the role she played for us.

There is not that many players that really can take over games, signed Candace Parker, I really felt like at that time that a National Championship was certainly in reach.

I mean, we're always trying to evaluate and tweak things and get better.

Attitude lies somewhere between emotion and logic. It's that curious mix of optimism and determination that enables you to maintain a positive outlook and to continue plodding in the face of the most adverse circumstances.

Teamwork does not come naturally. Let's face it. We are born with certain inclinations, but sharing isn't one of them.

Individual success is a myth. No one succeeds all by herself.

You can't pick and choose the days that you feel like being responsible. It's not something that disappears when you're tired.

Rebounding wins championships, you need to emphasize it and work with kids on it.

Bringing together disparate personalities to form a team is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have to ask yourself: what is the whole picture here? We want to make sure our players all fit together properly and complement each other, so that we don't have a big piece, a little piece, an oblong piece, and a round piece. If personalities work against each other, as a team you'll find yourselves spinning your wheels.

Success is all a matter of perspective. It depends on where you start from, and where you want to end up.

I was a little concerned about it when State Farm approached me because, you know, I've never done a commercial by any means, but I tried to look at it as something that would be good for our game. We've never had a women's basketball coach represented in that fashion and I love State Farm for the fact they really support the women's game.

Sit up straight, listen and participate.

Discipline helps you finish a job, and finishing is what separates excellent work from average work.

You can't have any quit in you if you want to be successful.

I want to keep coaching as long as I can. I love teaching and working with student athletes and I love being at the University of Tennessee.

The ultimate goal of discipline is to teach self discipline.

There is always someone better than you. Whatever it is that you do for a living, chances are, you will run into a situation in which you are not as talented as the person next to you. That's when being a competitor can make a difference in your fortunes.

Combine practice with belief.

I didn't say a lot. I didn't throw anything. That's not my style. I did think about it though.

Success lulls you. It makes the most ambitious of us complacent and sloppy. In a way, you have to cultivate a kind of amnesia and forget all of your previous prosperity.

It is what it is. But, it will be what you make it.

I want to continue to do is to help these young women be successful. .. You don't just say goodbye at the end of their playing careers and end it there.

I've always put great emphasis on the academics and getting your degree. It's important because basketball is short term. The long term is what are you gonna do after college and after you no longer can bounce the ball.

Nine-tenths of discipline is having the patience to do things right.

I am about helping each and every student athlete that selects to wear the orange, you know, be successful at Tennessee individually and as a team. That type of record is certainly not anything that I have aspirations to reach.

Losing strengthens you. It reveals your weaknesses so you can fix them

Teamwork doesn't come naturally. It must be taught.

Winners are not born, they are self-made.

Attitude is a choice. What you think you can do, whether positive or negative, confident or scared, will most likely happen.

I think you can challenge people, but you don't want to break people down. But you've got to sometimes just pull them aside and say, you know, you're OK but you could be better.

Loyalty is not unilateral. You have to give it to receive it.

The best way to handle responsibility is to break it down into smaller parts. Take care of one small thing at a time.

I remember every player-every single one-who wore the Tennessee orange, a shade that our rivals hate, a bold, aggravating color that you can usually find on a roadside crew, "or in a correctional institution," as my friend Wendy Larry jokes. But to us the color is a flag of pride, because it identifies us as Lady Vols and therefore as women of an unmistakable type. Fighters. I remember how many of them fought for a better life for themselves. I just met them halfway.

We do not win championships with girls. We win with competitors

Discipline yourself, so no one else has to.

Setting up a system that rewards you for meeting your goals and has penalties for failing to hit your target is just as important as putting your goals down on paper.

I think the most important thing I thought is, I thought about recruiting and what we need in recruiting.

The person, the student, the athlete, all are considered equal.

To me, teamwork is a lot like being part of a family. It comes with obligations, entanglements, headaches, and quarrels. But the rewards are worth the cost.

I don't give out compliments easily.

You're wondering what a bale of hay has to do with success. Well, there's a trick to loading hay. You have to use your knee. What you do is, you put your right knee behind it and half kick it up in the air. That way you get some lift on it. ... My point is, there are certain ways to make a hard job easier.

Admit to and make yourself accountable for mistakes. How can you improve if you're never wrong?

Put the Team Before Yourself.

Value those colleagues who tell you the truth, not just what you want to hear.

In the absence of feedback, people will fill in the blanks with a negative. They will assume you don’t care about them or don’t like them.