John Calipari On Coaching

John Calipari On Coaching



What I Have Learned From John Calipari

Kentucky Is Not For Everyone

• "(Kentucky) will not be for every player in the country. This will not be for every player in this state. This is gonna be one of those places where you accept that people -- we're the biggest game on everybody's schedule, would you say? Does it matter who's in the uniform? When that uniform is put on and it says Kentucky, you become the biggest game on the other team's schedule. I lived that at Massachusetts for four years and my last five years at Memphis. We were the biggest game on everybody's schedule. I know what that feels like, how you have to be as a coach and a player to deal with that. So this place will not be for every player." –John Calipari

I Can't Hide You

• "You know the old game of pass, pass, pass. This is dribble, dribble, dribble," Calipari said. "This unleashes players. This lets players get to the level they want.""I just told the team, if you cannot play, come and see me because this is not the right program. I can't hide you." 

Who Wants It More?

• "Do you want it worse than the other guy?" Calipari said while speaking to reporters in the Joe Craft Center before Sunday's practice. "What I told them was when they throw a bone into a pack of dogs one dog eats and the rest don't eat, that's just how it is. So basically do you want it worse than everyone else? Who's the meanest and toughest? Are you the toughest? Because when the bone goes in you either grab it or the other dog grabs it and then you (make a whining dog noise) and go away with nothing."

On Practice

• "Practice is where you break barriers.  My best teams would just devour practices.  They would set out to beat the practice everyday, and that's how they began to break barriers.  Nobody is going to feel like coming to practice everyday, but you've got to fight through that and bring it every single day.  That's what I'm trying to convince this team of..."

Principle #1 To know the road ahead ask those coming back
Principle #2 Go beyond what was before
Principle #3 Make happy those who are near and those who are far will come
Principle #4 Demand a lot to get a lot
Principle #5 Dreams of the future are more powerful than the history of the past

Principle #6
Principle #7
Principle #8
Principle #9
Principle #10 Players First, Not Player First