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.
Good Basketball Coach Quotations
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 X’s and O’s. 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
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 which 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 repeated.
Dean Smith
Dean Smith Sportscentury Video
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
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Some great tips for volunteer basketball coaches:
Youth Basketball Coaches: Seven Common Mistakes you Should Avoid at Practices
Basketball Practice Plans Quotes
Basketball Practice Plans QuotesWhat 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
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
Perform drills that force your players to think.
Bobby Knight
You better have great practices.
Al McGuire
Make the practices like games, and the 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 a 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.
Basketball Resources
Youth Basketball Practice Plans – A complete season’s worth of basketball plans give you a proven system for a great season.
Basketball Certificates – Recognize players, coaches and team parents with these designer certificates. Personalize, print and present.
Youth Basketball 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.
Basketball Slogans and Sayings – From “Teamwork makes the dream work” to “One team, One heart,” check out this big collection of basketball slogans and sayings.
Basketball Players Quotes
Carmelo Anthony quotes
Charles Barkley quotes
Larry Bird quotes
Kobe Bryant quotes
Tim Duncan quotes
Kevin Durant quotes
Julius “Dr. J” Erving quotes
Blake Griffin quotes
LeBron James quotes
Earvin Magic Johnson quotes
Michael Jordan quotes
Yao Ming quotes
Bill Russell quotes
Basketball Coaches Quotes
Red Auerbach quotes
Phil Jackson quotes
Mike Krzyzewski quotes
Al McGuire quotes
Don Meyer quotes
Rick Pitino quotes
Greg Popovich quotes
Pat Riley quotes
Dean Smith quotes
Jim Valvano quotes
John Wooden quotes
