Quotes from Dick Vitale

The Allstate March Mayhem Challenge is a great, great bracket challenge.

Bottom line: college basketball is broken.

Looking back, I remember telling my daughters that we didn't have money, pizzazz and a lot of the things we have today, but we had so much love and we lived like millionaires.

One day to see that headline, not that someone won a basketball championship, but to see that a cure for cancer has been found, will be a great day for mankind.

Mark Emmert, the head of the NCAA, makes millions. Coaches today are making millions. Who's not making anything? I don't want to hear about they get scholarships. Yeah, they get scholarships all right, they earn those scholarships.

I have a problem with honoring mediocrity in so many cases over teams that have great years.

Don't think you are a great person just because you are a star in a given sport and win all the time because the next time, you may lose—and the time after that.

A winner is someone who can look in the mirror at the end of the day and say in pursuit of my goal and dreams I gave my best.

Being a teacher taught me how to be organized, to have a game plan in English, History, Math. The same discipline carried over into coaching. If you are an efficient and effective coach, you start off every day with a plan. You don't just walk in there and roll out the ball. You've organized what you are going to do. You break down your offenses, your defenses, your individual skills.

You don't win championships by being a bunch of individual all-stars," I told them. "You do it by being a team—doing all the intangibles and playing together and really trying to help one another in chasing your goals.

Now the spotlight comes on and I'm saying to myself, 'Earvin, you don't play the game above the rim. You play it cerebrally. You play it in an intelligent way and just be who you are.

It's not how high you jump, how fast you run. All you guys here can run faster, jump higher. But I'll tell you, I can get my friend Larry Bird and the two of us will play any two of you and when it's all said and done, we will get the last laugh.

Knight inspires me in a similar way. When he was coaching, Knight was a brilliant teacher, a stern disciplinarian, and a purist who thought the game should be played the right way. The practice floor was his classroom; his players were his students. And he wouldn't put up with any distractions.

But what puts him over the top, in my estimation, is the job he has done putting America back on top in the global game. He's brought back the passion and sense of pride in playing for the red, white, and blue, by getting NBA All-Stars to understand they are playing for the name on the front of the jersey, U.S.A. Since he's become coach, Team USA has played with the utmost sense of urgency, bringing back the gold medal to where it belongs.

No matter what Mike Krzyzewski is making at Duke, it is not enough. He's underpaid! He is absolutely worth every penny he is getting. He is like a CEO of a major corporation when you think about his value to Duke University.

Life is simple. Make good decisions and good things happen. Make bad decisions and bad things happen.

The glory of sport is witnessing a well-coached team perform as a single unit, striving for a common goal and ultimately bringing distinction to the jersey the players represent.

I don't like the sleaziness, the corruption. I don't like the fraud that college basketball has become.

The biggest thing in my life - the biggest - is raising dollars to help kids battle cancer.

It is time for everyone to sit down -the NCAA, the NBA, the players union and the coaching fraternity-and come up with suitable solutions to these problems.

March Madness is an incredible three weeks. I firmly believe it's the greatest three weeks in sports. You have the Super Bowl; you have the World Series.

There's nothing like Cameron Indoor Stadium where the kids are right on top of you and the Cameron Crazies are going nuts. Rupp Arena with the Big Blue Nation and the passion of their fans is special.

I told them that I cannot lie when a writer asks me what's my feeling not doing the game. I said I have to be honest. And my honest reply to you is, obviously, I'm a loyal team player. I will go where my bosses tell me to go.

People that don't know me think that basketball is my life 24/7. Trust me, there is much more to my life. My number one priority in my life is my family.