Rick Pitino Quotations

Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.

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.

The one thing I've always said: Let your family and close friends be the judge of who you are as a person. Don't worry about being judged by others who don't know you, because your family and close friends know what you're all about, good and bad.

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

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

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.

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

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.

The term 'overachiever' sort of makes it look like the person has mediocre talent and he just works so hard that he achieves beyond what you would think. 'Overachiever' is sort of a - it's sort of an incorrect term. An overachiever is someone that's just willing to pay the price to get so much more out of his performance.

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.

I ignore the jealous, I ignore the malicious, I ignore the ignorant and I ignore the paranoid.

I'd learned how much happiness money can bring you. Very little.

If I had one regret in life... it's that I was not more humble at an earlier age.

Football is only once a week. NASCAR is once a week. Those sports are insanely popular. Horse racing is oversaturated. Unless tracks cut back to three days a week of full fields, a lot of people will really hurt down the road. Horse racing, to survive, has to go to that. Let's face it: Churchill Downs only does well on Derby Week.

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.

Humility is what makes teams great. I've preached it for a long period of time.

When you coach Russ Smith, you have a nervous breakdown on every possession. He's not from a different country. He's from a different planet.

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.

Passion and hunger are the two ingredients that I look for in first making the judgment on - whether an athlete, an assistant coach, or a horse trainer or anybody I do business with.

Basketball has consumed me since the age of 7 or 8. I don't know what I would do without it.

Basketball is my passion, and I love it, and I love to see my players succeed. I'm here for them and my children. That's my passion.

I try not to get too low. I fight adversity as hard as I can fight it, not to get too low. When good things happen, I don't really embrace it. I just say it's a lucky day.

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.

This is not the beginning of American civilization where we need guns because it's the Wild, Wild West... There should not be guns in our society, and we all know that; politicians know that.

I care what people think, but it doesn't change my opinion of how to do things.

I give myself 24 hours after a loss. After that, I'm totally on to the next game. But for 24 hours, I'm not a happy man.

I don't get into these petty things, Kentucky-Louisville. To me, it's nonsense... There will be people at Kentucky that will have a nervous breakdown if they lose to us... They've got to put the fences up on bridges. There will be people consumed by Louisville.

I never thought that shoes would be the reason that you recruit players, but it's a factor. I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of the athletes. I think we need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people, but that's easier said than done.

I loved going to the Knicks because we won the Atlantic Division championship. We went from winning 21 games or 19 games to winning 52 games in a short period of time. I loved coaching Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley and all those guys.

I plan to coach at University of Louisville for as long as I can maintain the passion I have for the game of basketball. I don't want to coach anywhere else. I don't believe in anything else as much as I believe in this university and this state. I want to coach as long as they will have me.

One thing I've learned to do with my age, I really don't look ahead. For years, I've been preaching the precious present and having to always subscribe to it.

The other guys just caught lightning in a bottle with a great game.

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

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

I'd tell any coach not to move for money... Stay at your job if you're really happy.

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.

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.

I think I do regret leaving Kentucky because I took over a team with 15 wins banking everything on the Tim Duncan lottery, and once we didn't get Tim Duncan, I realized that leaving Kentucky was not a good move.

What I've found in my life with our children is that often you can give them advice and tell them to eat the right things, stay in shape and wear sunscreen, and they don't really want to listen. But then they hear it from someone else, and they do listen.

We've accomplished what we've wanted to accomplish, record-wise. But we're nowhere near where we should be or where we ought to be.

We've never been a Top 20 team, at least not yet. Don't get carried away with beating Louisville. Any win in the Big East is great, but I wouldn't use it as a barometer.

Missouri State is a great team. We now know how the Missouri Valley Conference is underrated and probably Creighton and Missouri State should be in (the NCAA Tournament).

Nobody we've played this season, ... has come with this much size, this much talent and this much experience. North Carolina and Georgia Tech probably have the most overall talent. Now that they're healthy, they're probably believing they can do it.

I don't think anyone in Louisville knew how tough the Big East and Villanova was before tonight; now they all know. Villanova was just a better basketball team.

I don't think you'll find a more competitive NIT field than the one I'm looking at with this one. We relish the challenge.

He tried to go in the second half but could not go. I don't think it's anything serious. I'm not sure what it is.

We've got to stop Gray inside. Padgett really played well against him and Brian and Terrance aren't the offensive threat David is, so we're going to have to get a good game out of Palacios and our two centers just to contain Gray.

We may have survived a little bit if we were in Conference USA with this team, but surviving in the Big East is another story. You have to grow up in a hurry. We are just not physically talented with out inexperience and youth.

He was the biggest cheater the game has ever known. I told Jim he shouldn't be wearing glasses because he must have Superman vision. The ball would be two feet from me or Bernie, and there's Jim ? from the other end of the court ? making line calls.

He's playing on one leg. We're a banged-up team, a young team. Our backs are to the wall a little bit in this league.

I think they'll come back because they should. One more year and they'll be ready for the next level.

I think the week off is a good thing now, especially for David. Resting the knee is important.

I think Connecticut is a very easy game. They're playing to be number one in the country. It's senior afternoon. It's on national television. It should be an easy game.

Little did he know what was going on behind the scenes.

We hang in there with some pretty good basketball teams. (But) there is no substitute for experience. Young teams don't win against good teams.

We've made our free throws of late, and that's impressive when you're fatigued.

We didn't have any bench, so rather than come in with all second-unit guys, I figured let's mix it up so we didn't lose anything when we subbed.

Why don't we just go to New York and we'll see you there?

You have to come away with the victory. You can't play this well and come away with a loss.

What I wanted to see was, were we proud of being in the NIT? We worked our tails off.

With seven new players, you're never going to have an experienced lineup. This is who we are. ... Our guys did a good job. The key is six weeks from now, how good can we become?

With seven new players, we're never going to have an experienced lineup. This is who we are. We're a very young and inexperienced basketball team. But they're willing to play hard.

What happened was a mistake, and he owned up to it. And for this to be pulled from him is very disappointing.

We just wanted to lock down defensively. We made great defensive plays down the stretch. Inexperienced teams find a way to lose, tonight we found a way to win.

Billy coached as perfect a game as I've ever seen in a national championship game. It reminded me of 1987 when he carried an average Providence team to the final weekend.

The whole NIT we're playing great defense, that's what we're trying to stress. We talked about, we can't hang our heads because we had injuries, we can't hang our heads because we're young. If you can head to the NIT Final Four, it means you're playing good basketball.

These are special fans. That was a great 14,000 fans - they were terrific. The NIT is a chance for some of our fans who don't have season tickets to help our team, which they did tremendously. I think our guys responded like there was a lot at stake, because there is a lot at stake.

I've tried to talk to him about it. He's not playing with Francisco, Larry (O'Bannon) and Ellis. And they know every little move that each other makes. He's playing with all new people. They don't know each other. He's got to let the game come to him and trust his teammates. And the more he goes inside to (center) David (Padgett) the more open shots he's going to get.

I've never beaten a team that played that well. This is the gutsiest, most phenomenally tough group that I've ever been around.

This group is inexperienced, but once they start practicing together more, I think the sky is the limit to how good they can become. We've won all our games not because of who we played but because we've played them all at home. It will be interesting to see how they handle going into this environment.

They do such a good job of penetrating. We got beat constantly off the dribble. It was a matter of a team much more athletic than us. Our style is a very athletic style being played by not very athletic people.

This is the most disappointing preseason I've experienced in a long time. We'll look for the silver lining, and when I can find it, I'll let everyone know.

They're just physically more talented. They're bigger and better.

They're going to have to get a coach as good as Bob Huggins, and that's not easy to find. But if they can attract someone of the caliber of Bob Huggins, they can certainly continue.

It's a big hindrance. If we were playing in the Maui Classic, we'd be in seriously bad shape. But we're not. We're starting at home. We think we can withstand these injuries.

It worked OK. It was to our favor. The only problem is our point guard (Andre McGee) is breaking down physically. He's doing a good job, but he's wearing out.

They are tough, they get after you. They have quick hands and are hard-nosed. They drive so much and draw fouls. I am impressed with them. They have the toughness to compete in the Big East. They are tough guys.

This is a very difficult conference. I don't think anyone in Louisville besides me knew that. Now they all know.

The new format is great. It's run just like the women's tournament used to be.

It's my wedding night, and we're in a posh New York City hotel ready to ... you know ... when I get a call. It's Jim, and he's down in the lobby and he wants to meet with me. He tells me there's this kid named Louie Orr in Cincinnati that we just have to land, and he says he needs me to get there and seal the deal. I tell him, 'Jim, it's my wedding night.' He was single at the time and totally consumed with basketball, so I guess he didn't understand.

I'm extremely proud. We talked this morning and everything he said he wanted this team to do, it's done. It's really amazing to see.

I'm just tired of getting out-rebounded. When you have a young team, you're going to have one problem after another. But I've been tired of this rebounding situation this entire year.

If you go to the NIT and win a championship, that is special. That's the way we're looking at this.

Hicks is inch-for-inch, pound-for-pound the toughest player in basketball. We played really good defense against a good ball club.

He's just a prolific scorer. He is great at hitting runners in the lane and he has great range on his jump shot. And because you have to worry about some of their other players, it sets up very nicely for him.

I deserved a 'T'. I was trying to get our guys (motivated). It was a good call.

He's not 100 percent. First it's the ankle, now it's leg cramps. He's been a little unlucky this year.

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

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

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.

Every individual in an organization is motivated by something different.

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

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

Ego is the greatest killer of one's potential

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.

When love and discipline come together you have great chemistry.

Dreamers are not content with being mediocre.

Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender.

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

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