Basketball Coaching Quotes — If you’re coaching a basketball team, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Learn from some of the other great coaches – both past and present – to understand some of the key points to teaching basketball.
Check out the collection of quotes below – mostly from basketball coaches – and see if you can find a nugget or two to apply to your program.
Best Basketball Coach Quotes
- We try to stress the little things because little things lead to big things.
Steve Alford - Criticize on defense and encourage on offense.
John Brady - Always acknowledge hustle plays in practice.
Lou Campanelli - Coaching doesn’t start with Xs and Os. It starts with believing that players win games and coaches win players.
Bill Courtney - Never let fundamentals and building skills take a backseat to game planning. Game plans win games. Fundamentals win championships.
Tom Crean
Good Basketball Coaching Quotes
- Hearing improves with praise!
Mark Gottfried - I think the most important thing about coaching is that you have to have a sense of confidence about what you’re doing. You have to be a salesman and you have to get your players, particularly your leaders, to believe in what you’re trying to accomplish on the basketball floor.
Phil Jackson - If I was given eight hours to chop down a tree, I would spend seven hours sharpening my axe.
Abraham Lincoln - Your program must have an overriding purpose that is clearly visible and which teaches lessons beyond winning.
Don Meyer - You build your program from the ideas of great coaches.
Don Meyer - Praise behavior that you want to be repeated.
Dean Smith
Basketball Coaching Sayings
- The most important thing is team morale.
Dean Smith - Confidence is what happens when you’ve done the hard work that entitles you to succeed.
Pat Summit - The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.
Mark Van Doren - I am not a strategic coach; I am a practice coach.
John Wooden - It’s what you learn after you know it all that counts.
John Wooden - Nothing will work unless you do.
John Wooden
Basketball Court Dimensions and Hoop Height
Basketball Practice Plans Quotes
- What you specifically teach is what your players will do best.
Dick Bennett - See the picture, sell the picture, paint the picture.
Dick Bennett - Coaching is preparation.
Pete Carril - Good coaching is good teaching and nothing else.
Pat Conroy - Systems win! Believe in your system, and then sell it to your players.
Billy Donavan
Check out: Kawhi Leonard quotes, net worth and more.
Inspirational Basketball Coaching Quotes
- I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began.
Bob Knight - Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to prepare to win.
Bob Knight - Practice structure determines success.
Bobby Knight - 23 Inspirational Basketball Quotes
- Perform drills that force your players to think.
Bobby Knight - You better have great practices.
Al McGuire - Make practices like games, and games like practices.
Don Meyer - Know what you want to emphasize, then do it daily.
Unknown - All really successful coaches have a system.
Jimmy Valvano - I would spend almost as much time planning practice as conducting it. Everything was planned out each day.
John Wooden - If you have any suggestions to add to our collection of quotes, please use the Contact Us form and let us know. Thanks.
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Basketball Resources
Practice Plans – A complete season’s worth of basketball plans give you a proven system for a great season.
Certificates – Recognize players, coaches and team parents with these designer certificates. Personalize, print and present.
Check out Basketball Quotes for Girls.
Youth Training Program – A six or nine-week program to get youth basketball players ready for the season ahead. Practice this summer at your home or neighborhood court.
Slogans and Sayings – From “Teamwork makes the dream work” to “One team, One heart,” check out this big collection of basketball slogans and sayings.
— Mike O’Halloran
Mike is a former basketball coach, author of three books on basketball, and founder of Sports Feel Good Stories.
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Basketball Coaches Quotes