MIKE KRZYZEWSKI

It's always an honor to be ranked high, but whatever is said about you, you take it and then take a realistic look at yourself and who you are.

If you win a National Championship, or you win two, people think you have not only seen the Holy Grail, but you've embraced it. Basically, I do what a lot of people do, but I've been able to win.

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.

When I went to high school, an all-boys' school, a Catholic school, I tried out for football, and I didn't make it. It was the first time, athletically, that I was knocked down.

Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.

When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

There are kids don't want to do something because they're afraid of looking stupid to their peers. There comes a time when they start protecting themselves, instead of extending. I want to make sure that they're always trying to extend themselves.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

Playing sport was somewhat frivolous, but I liked it. I rebelled a little bit, and wouldn't go to music lessons and things like that, but I would go and play ball. My parents learned to love it because they saw how much I got out of it.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

It is the ultimate honor for a coach to be his country's coach.

My ambition in high school was to be a high school coach and teacher, and that's still what I do: teach.

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.

I have a rule on my team: when we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.

I hated to lose.

That's another thing, we made up games. We didn't have equipment. When it snowed, we would play slow motion tackle football. We would play hockey, but we wouldn't skate. We just made things up. I loved doing that.

I've been so fortunate in my life that my family has never been jealous of my success. They have shown true love and commitment to me by being supportive. They shared in it.

I've tried to handle winning well, so that maybe we'll win again, but I've also tried to handle failure well. If those serve as good examples for teachers and kids, then I hope that would be a contribution I have made to sport. Not just basketball, but to sport.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

When you win, sometimes it overshadows a poor performance.

When I was in sixth grade, I wanted to become a priest.

Leadership is an ever-evolving position.