John Calipari Quotes

It's all about practice and more practice. Travel to tournaments, play in them, watch other players.

The thing about the NBA, if you have a weakness, they are going to expose it on the first day of practice. You have to get rid of your weaknesses, and your strengths have to be as sharp as anything.

Coaching is something that takes place only when learning does. No matter what you are doing in your practices, if your players are not learning something significant, you're really not coaching. If a player fails in a game, the coach may have failed in practice.

In those one-off games, everyone can do those, but you put together a six, seven-game tournament, the strong survive. For me to still feel good from beginning to end, that's a testament to how I train and what I do.

Of course, you want to win something and be as successful as possible as an individual player. It is normal to look around and think, 'With what club can I achieve that with?'

I think our sport evolves as the talent evolves and the mindset evolves.

As you get stronger, you learn to maintain the position against higher rated players. This comes with experience.

When you become a professional footballer, there's no written contract that says you have to strive to play first-team football.

The more matches I play, the better I feel on the pitch.

I just wanted to become a better player at everything - someone who is a real tough matchup to guard.

I want to become a world-class player.

Some weeks, I'll go super-hard at practice for two straight days, but then the third day, something happens away from basketball, and I'll lose focus. I'll say, 'I just want to get through practice. I don't want to conquer it today.' But then I'll go home and realize I missed a chance to get better, and it'll bother me.

If you're not playing really well, practices can sort of correct it.

If a guy's not executing very well, then obviously we haven't given him enough looks in practice.

You want to score runs at the highest average you can. That's what motivates you to keep driving the standards.

We're dealing with men here. What we're trying to do is help them become the best players they can be, and we're all collectively trying to win games. So what I always tell people is that the way you earn these players' respect is, do you make them a better football player?

For me to be a better player, I need to play more games, and having a gaffer I know has great trust in me gives me the confidence I need to help me improve my game.

We are professionals. We know when we're playing badly, so if you have a poor game, you work in training to put things right so form comes back.

I'm just trying to be the best quarterback possible. So as long as I'm playing well and improving every day, I will just continue this.

I'm a player, or I'm a person who needs to practice a lot; otherwise, I don't play well.

You definitely see a difference in some guys' games when they do get paid. I'm trying to make sure I'm not that player.

That's been my challenge. Go out there and guard the best player and get it done on both ends. It's been working out pretty good for me. Just got to keep that thing going.

The way I operate as a football player and the product that I put on the field in relation to the business that I conduct, I want it to be as tough as possible in practice so when I get into the games I've been there before.

The idea of playing the point and leading a team to the NBA championship is what drove me to get up every day and work on my game as a kid.

That's what the great teams do. That's where, if you're a good shooter, become a great one. If you're a good ballhandler, become a great one.