Rick Pitino Quotes

Many times, the game comes down to the final possession, the final shot. I want to become a better clutch performer. That's what separates the really good players from the really great players.

When it's late in a game and things are tough and you need a basket, someone has to step up. That player has to have the ability to create opportunities and draw fouls.

In the closing seconds of every game, I want the ball in my hands for the last shot - not in anybody else's, not in anybody else's in the world.

A lot of coaches might yank you after the first couple shots don't go in.

It was just weird. Once you get the ball and you get in a situation, it's like haywire, everything goes crazy, and everybody's running around. You don't know who to pass it to or what to do. So Coach said just slow down and just make the right play. I tried to get the best look I could at the basket.

I took Hedo (Turkoglu) in the first game and Rashard (Lewis) hit the winning shot. I took Rashard in the second game and Hedo hit the shot. If I could clone myself, we'd be all right. But I can't.

The last player you want the ball to go to is the best player on the planet.

When time is running out and the score is close, most players are thinking, I don't want to be the one to lose the game, but I'm thinking, What do I have to do to win?

To win the big games you must get to the Free Throw line, and then you must make them.

Sammy Sosa's a September player, so you have to watch out for him. It's crunch time, time to make history.

I think I've always been a player who's done better in the second half, who's done better in the fourth quarter. That's the fun time to play, when everything you've worked for the whole game boils down to those last few possessions.

I just want to be in there at the end of the game to try to help the team win. The last six minutes of an NBA game is where you make your name, so hopefully I'm in there trying to help my guys win.

I just feel like whenever the team needs a bucket, I can come and get it. I feel I'm a really good scorer.

There are definitely times during a game when you need someone to step up and make a play.

Everybody wants to play late, everybody wants to be clutch.

What is the best thing you can do in a close game? Drive to the basket and put pressure on the defense! Not jack up jump shots

When I come into a game in the bottom of the ninth, bases loaded, no one out and a one-run lead ... it takes people off my mind.

I want everybody to feel he has a chance to get into a game when he comes to the ballpark. I play guys when I want to so they'll be ready when I have to. I don't consider myself a motivator of players. I think it's an insult to a ballplayer to have to be motivated.

The hardest thing about an easy match is making a weak opponent play poor. A poor player isn't poor because he tends to kick the ball in his own goal. It's because when you put intense pressure on him, he loses control. So you have to increase the tempo of the game and he'll automatically give the ball away.

I was shooting 45 times a game. What was I supposed to do? Pass it into Chris Mihm & Kwame Brown?

I learned so much from Sue about the Xs and Os of the game of basketball.

The only thing I pay attention to with free throws is what a guy does in the final four minutes of a game. If you can improve players' self-esteem and confidence, get them to relax, teach visualization and routine, they will shoot as well, or better, with the pressure on.

You should sub a player out when you see a player not going full-speed or playing selfish basketball.

I've always considered myself a crunch-time player. I just love having the ball in my hands. Everyone in the arena knows the ball is supposed to be in your hands and you still make it. It's the odds. I love the odds.

I wasn't as critical during games as I was at practice. Players needed confidence during games more than criticism.