Quotes from Rick Pitino

I try not to get too low. I fight adversity as hard as I can fight it, not to get too low. When good things happen, I don't really embrace it. I just say it's a lucky day.

I never thought that shoes would be the reason that you recruit players, but it's a factor. I think we need to get the shoe companies out of the lives of the athletes. I think we need to get it back to where parents and coaches have more of a say than peripheral people, but that's easier said than done.

I give myself 24 hours after a loss. After that, I'm totally on to the next game. But for 24 hours, I'm not a happy man.

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

The one thing I've always said: Let your family and close friends be the judge of who you are as a person. Don't worry about being judged by others who don't know you, because your family and close friends know what you're all about, good and bad.

When love and discipline come together you have great chemistry.

Lying makes a problem part of the future; truth makes a problem part of the past.

Passion and hunger are the two ingredients that I look for in first making the judgment on - whether an athlete, an assistant coach, or a horse trainer or anybody I do business with.

Basketball has consumed me since the age of 7 or 8. I don't know what I would do without it.

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.

I loved going to the Knicks because we won the Atlantic Division championship. We went from winning 21 games or 19 games to winning 52 games in a short period of time. I loved coaching Patrick Ewing and Charles Oakley and all those guys.

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.

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.

Never let anyone out work you or out hustle you. Ever.

Working hard is not always fun - that's why it is called work.

Those who work the hardest are the last to surrender.

When you describe passion at any age, passion is derived from everything, from the people you work with to enjoying the last four years.

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.

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.

I can say that hands down from being in this business 32 years; we're going to be much better than we were last year just because there's eight new players that now have experience and Palacios will be healthy.

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

Doubt is one of the main paths on the highway to failure.