Great Basketball Coaching Quotes

Like most sports shown on television, basketball games are usually accompanied by endless prattle called announcing and color commentary. Some of this talk can be helpful in discerning the fine points of the game, especially if it is provided by former players or coaches. But even then what some fans would really like to know is what is being said in those timeout huddles. What is the coach saying that can and often does make a difference when the team returns to the floor. Though we can’t hear the exact words being said we can get a hint about how coaches think by reading some of these great basketball coaching quotes.

From Mike Krzyzewski Among active coaches, Coach K of Duke University is among the most revered and with due cause. Coach K consistently brings a competitive team into the ACC and has helped to raise the interest in basketball nationwide. Winning a national title is not an easy thing but winning back to back titles as Coach K and the Dukies did is almost unheard of. His stature in basketball means that when he speaks, basketball players and basketball junkies all listen.

Coach K teaches many sides of the game but one thing you can plan on hearing in any huddle up with him will probably be something connected to team work and coordination. His attitude about team play is spelled out clearly in this great basketball coaching quote: “A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That’s the way I want you to play.” The team concept has given Krzyzewski and his Blue Devils success in basketball and beyond.

From John Wooden Known affectionately by basketball enthusiasts everywhere as the “Houdini of the Hardwood”, John Wooden would be among the first to insist that there really is no magic in basketball, just lots of hard work. As the Head Coach at UCLA through 7 consecutive National Championships, John Wooden established himself nonetheless as somewhat of a basketball guru .

Wooden’s philosophy on basketball is extensive . But in the end he seems to agree with Coach K’s view of the importance of the team. Said Wooden: “A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group for the good of the group, that’s teamwork.” While Wooden certainly worked with many young men who went on to distinguish themselves as professional athletes, when they huddled up with Wooden, they heard plenty of great basketball coaching quotes about playing as a team.

From Bobby Knight. Arguably the most controversial college basketball coach of the modern era. Bob Knight knows basketball. He has been berated for his temper tantrums but never for his inability to coach a team. To many players and coaches alike the coaching techniques of Bobby Knight are second to none. Undoubtedly in his practice sessions Knight works on standard offensive sets and defensive alignments but more than that somewhere in the mix there must also be discussions about toughness.

A great basketball coaching quote form Bobby Knight is : “Mental toughness is to physical as four is to one”. There is no doubt that every team Bobby Knight has ever coached has been trained to a level of considerable physical toughness, but it is also clear that what Knight really values in players is mental tenacity because in the end that’s what he believes wins ball games.

From Billy Donovan Not as long in the business as men like Coach K or Bobby Knight , Billy Donovan has gained in celebrity status over the last half dozen years at the University of Florida. With a group of young players in 2006, Donovan didn’t just make a nice run for the title, he brought it home. Donovan has his own ideas about what wins games.and how great teams are developed.

According to Donovan, a former standout player himself at Providence College: ” Systems win! Believe in your system and then sell it to your players.” Donovan apparently has done both. When teams huddle up with Billy Donovan they already know what they are going to hear, because they know and believe in the system he has taught them. Timeouts aren’t likely to hold man surprises for Florida players.

Rick Patino. This coach has seen it all. Providence College, the University of Kentucky, the Boston Celtics and Louisville. Along the way there have been lots of successes but Patino, ever the perfectionist, also occasionally builds on his failures. The lesson that Patino seems to bring into the team meeting is sometimes about learning from what has happened or not happened. “Failure is good. It’s fertilizer. Everything I’ve learnedabout coaching, I’ve learned from making mistakes.”

If you play for Patino apparently mistakes are okay, as long as you profit by your errors. Probably doing the same thing wrong over and over won’t play too well, but learning from your mistakes, that’s something that Patino obviously values.

It is unlikely that basketball or any other sport will let too many sound bites come directly from the team huddle. It would certainly limit or alter what coaches might say. Still by checking in on some of these great basketball coaching quotes you can begin to guess at just what might be going on when time is out.