Rick Pitino

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

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

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

“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 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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“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.”