R Pitino Quotes & Sayings

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. — Rick Pitino

Postponing action is only postponing achievement. — Rick Pitino

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. — Rick Pitino

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

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. — Rick Pitino

I actually think if you have a strong junior class, that's the best possible scenario. In their senior year, guys who are on the threshold of making it to the NBA start getting preoccupied in their thoughts elsewhere more than concerning themselves with the present. The junior class is the perfect age. — Rick Pitino

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

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. — Rick Pitino

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. — Rick Pitino

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. — Rick Pitino

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

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

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. — Rick Pitino

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

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. — Rick Pitino

Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender. — Rick Pitino

Pat Riley, Dave Checketts and Ernie Grunfeld - they brought the Knicks back to the glory days. It started with Rick Pitino. We took our first step with him, making the playoffs. When Pat came in we just kicked the door open. — Patrick Ewing

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. — Rick Pitino

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

Success is determined by your daily choices and habits — Rick Pitino

True motivation is not getting people to play to their potential. It's getting people to play beyond their potential — Rick Pitino

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. — Rick Pitino

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. — Rick Pitino

Live in the precious present. — Rick Pitino

When love and discipline come together you have great chemistry. — Rick Pitino

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

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. — Rick Pitino

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

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. — Rick Pitino

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