Mike Krzyzewski Quotes

I hated to lose.

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.

A basketball team is like the five fingers on your hand. If you can get them all together, you have a fist. That's how I want you to play.

Actually, the Kentucky moment was better than winning the two National Championships, because it was the epitome of what I try to get from a team in a crisis situation.

Basketball was not my main sport in grade school, or even the first year of high school.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

Even though we want huge individual egos, our collective ego is unbelievable.

Everybody wants to take responsibility when you win, but when you fail, all these fingers are pointing.

First of all, what happens is, when you're good at something, you spend a lot of time with it. People identify you with that sport, so it becomes part of your identity.

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

There are kids don't want to do something because they're afraid of looking stupid to their peers. There comes a time when they start protecting themselves, instead of extending. I want to make sure that they're always trying to extend themselves.

Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I've always looked up to.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

When I was growing up, there weren't any Little Leagues in the city. Parents worked all the time. They didn't have time to take their kids out to play baseball and football.

We lost, and that's the main thing that went wrong.

Things happen in a game, and he took responsibility for it. I hope ... he's not punished. ... That kid's a hell of a player.

J.J. played spectacular tonight. He was there when we needed him to be there. We needed him to be there in order to get the win and he was there. They played very well and we beat a good team. It is quite an accomplishment.

The signing of the floor was not about Maryland or any particular opponent. It's about us. It's about us reminding each other that this is our floor, and we don't take it for granted. That's the only thing.

It's a great recruiting class so far. Having marquee players like that, guys who are hungry to represent their country, two of the top players in the game, that's a great start.

J.J. had one of the great performances here. Are you kidding me? I'm not sure how many times he hit the rim. He hit the rim more on his free throws than he did on his 3-point shots.

We're spoiled by his defense. He doesn't leap tall buildings with a single bound, but he got seven blocks tonight. That was a terrific play, as were his free throws.

We feel like we won a really tough basketball game against an outstanding team.

There aren't many kids like him. He's one of the best players in the country. He has high, high energy and he's at that position that we've used so well for 20 years - the mismatch at the four.

I don't think there's anything that can prepare them, really. You've got to be there. You've got to feel it.