Rick Pitino Quotes

The basic premise of my system is to fatigue your opponents with constant pressure defensively and constant movement offensively.

At Boston University, I motivated negatively, and I found that although it can work at first, by the end of the year everyone is dying for the year to end and you have lost them. The last two years at BU, I motivated positively and got much better results.

If I didn't have a recruiting engagement, I was going to be here. I did everything possible to change the recruiting thing. I'm a very small part of this night, but I did want to be a part of it.

Dreamers are not content with being mediocre.

Success is determined by your daily choices and habits

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.

Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different.

Postponing action is only postponing achievement.

When you build bridges you can keep crossing them.

Francisco Garcia could have been a high draft choice last year, probably in the 20s. He's the best wing player I've ever coached. But he's done it the right way. He knew he had to work on his body to become a good pro. When he goes into the pros, he'll be physically ready.

He knew I enjoyed the relationships of college basketball. All along, he was the wise one.

When you have a problem, if you tell the truth, the problem becomes part of your past. If you lie, it becomes part of your future.

Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender.

Doubt is one of the main paths on the highway to failure.

It's better to have a good player with the basketball in late game situations than to have plays.

Coaches are bridge builders. It's our job to build a bridge for our athletes to cross over.

All good things have to come to an end, and the male cheerleader has come to an end

Set higher standards for you own performance than anyone around you, and it won't matter whether you have a tough boss or an easy one. It won't matter whether the competition is pushing you hard, because you'll be competing with yourself.

The bone's 6 inches out of his leg and all he's yelling is, 'Win the game, win the game.' I've not seen that in my life. Pretty special young man. I don't think we could have gathered ourselves - I know I couldn't have - if Kevin didn't say over and over again, 'Just go win the game,' I don't think we could have gone in the locker room with a loss after seeing that. We had to gather ourselves. We couldn't lose this game for him. We just couldn't.

Self-esteem is directly linked to deserving success. You must deserve victory to feel good about yourself.

When you describe passion at any age, passion is derived from everything, from the people you work with to enjoying the last four years.

Tackle the difficult things first in the morning; make changes in the way you network. Treat everyone with respect and dignity. This stops you from cynicism and negativity. End your day with that same attitude you started. Renew your contract with a day well completed.

Working hard is not always fun - that's why it is called work.

If you are not willing to work hard and establish discipline in your life, then all your dreams are merely pipe dreams.

Long term success is a direct result of what you achieve everyday. Goals provide your daily routine

When it comes to team dynamics - on a basketball court or in a corporate setting - maintaining a positive atmosphere is crucial.

Learning what not to do is sometimes more important than learning what to do.

I just don't deal with the negativity. I can't get involved in that side of it. I don't understand it, and you can't let it take away from your life and what you are trying to do.

Avoid cynical and negative people like the plague. They are killers of potential.

The key to coaching is not what you do, but the way you do it. The intangibles, the motivational parts of the game are the most important facets of it.

After September 11, I don't think people really believe things like this are all that important.

Technology is a compulsive and addictive way to live. Verbal communication cannot be lost because of a lack of skill. The ability to listen and learn is key to mastering the art of communication. If you dont use your verbal skills and networking, it will disappear rapidly. Use technology wisely.

The only way to get people to like working hard is to motivate them. Today, people must understand why they're working hard. Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different.

People with high self esteem are risk takers, but more importantly, they are achievers.

Set higher standards for your own performance than anyone else around you, and your only competition will be with yourself

Nothing meaningful or lasting comes without working hard at it.

Make incremental progress, change comes not by the yard, but by the inch.

Learning to live in the present tense-one that's free from the failures of the past and the anxieties of the future-is a wonderful gift, and one you always should be striving for.

Live in the precious present.

It could happen to anyone when you get hired by a different president. There's a difference in philosophies. It happens. It's a change in CEOs. They have their own people, their own philosophies, and it's different than what Bob stands for.

I learned quickly that motivating people would be the most important responsibility of my career.

Inferior guards play on the sidelines and great guards play in the middle. Isiah, Magic, Chris Paul, all get to the middle

Failure is good. It's fertilizer. Everything I've learned about coaching I've learned from making mistakes.

The more you lose, the more positive you have to become. When you're winning, you can ride players harder because their self-esteem is high. If you are losing and you try to be tough, you're asking for dissension.

Never let anyone out work you or out hustle you. Ever.

You are trying not only to reach your potential but to move beyond it. If you are not in the best shape you can be, these things simply become more difficult to achieve.

I'm at the stage of my career when it's not only about winning and developing players, it's about having fun. That's a void in your life right now, but it's something you're going to have here.

I can say that hands down from being in this business 32 years; we're going to be much better than we were last year just because there's eight new players that now have experience and Palacios will be healthy.