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Basketball Quotes by Bobby Knight

55 Basketball quotes by Bobby Knight

All Basketball quotes Bobby Knight’s page

Coach Bobby Knight believes practice should be tougher than any game, with full‑court drills that test both body and mind. He enjoys the grind of preparation and says listening is rare but essential. He also worries that “one‑and‑done” players hurt college basketball.

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Practice structure determines success.

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Good basketball always starts with good defense!

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Perform drills that force your players to think

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Your biggest opponent isn't the other guy. It's human nature.

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Offense is not equal opportunity

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To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation

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Everybody hears, but few listen.

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My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed.

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I've always felt that, you know, the Almighty has a lot of things to do other than help my basketball team.

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If I were in charge I'd drug test all you sons of b****es, not just the athletes.

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The biggest difficulty in getting to the top of the ladder is getting through the crowd at the bottom.

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I always designed my practice plans the night before and then made tweaks a few hours before practice began

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We just got our ass beat by a much better team. It happens once in a while. Does every team win every…

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We should not have to push you to work hard, you should work hard because you want to be a great player.

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The single most important aspect of coaching is running effective practices

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What is the best thing you can do in a close game? Drive to the basket and put pressure on the defense!…

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If we want the best pitcher, let's get Bobby Feller. If want the best football player, let's get Jimmy Brown; the best…

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As I've said, basketball has been, I think, a real cooperative venture. There have been a lot of people that have been…

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From my standpoint, I would make it very difficult on the NBA to even have any association with college basketball. I think…

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As coaches we talk about two things: offense and defense. There is a third phase we neglect, which is more important. It's…

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When my time on earth is done and my activities here are past, I want them to bury me upside down, so…

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I'm not sure that an athlete is prepared to be a role model. He has a lot of attention paid to him…

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I just love the game of basketball so much. The game! I don't need the 18,000 people screaming and all the peripheral…

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If universities want to save a little money, they ought to make some cutbacks in administration and in faculty people who teach…

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Pat has been instrumental in what we've done here so far and the most selfish thing for me is that I want…

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Offense at Indiana is not equal opportunity. Those players who shoot best are going to shoot most. It is important that every…

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I tell you what really fries my ass. When somebody gets on me for the way I look. Fat. Overweight. Well, I…

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If my primary purpose here at Indiana is to go out and win ballgames, I can probably do that as well as…

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I want to say to you Indiana people that I owe you a big, big debt of gratitude because nowhere in the…

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I think that to stop an offense, you must go to the heart of that offense. If it is a particular move,…

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A great way to test the conditioning of your team is the two-mile run.

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Players must be able to carry out simple instructions from the bench to the court. If they can't, then they can't play

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Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court.

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Walking has been ridiculous in college basketball the past 15 years.

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I hate casual shooting. Every shot is preceded by working to get open and catch and shoot under game like conditions

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I have always maintained that in basketball the importance of the mental to the physical is about four to one.

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The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.

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In order to achieve to achieve positive results, one must work for them, not hope for them

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Failure, to me, is not having the desire to try. Having the desire to try is in it own way success.

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Passing is your best weapon against man to man. Dribble penetration is your best weapon against zone.

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More by Bobby Knight

I also believe that when something negative comes out about you in the media, that's only one person's opinion. These guys sometimes believe they've…

My overall point is that 'one and dones' are not healthy for college basketball. I should not have made it personal to Kentucky and…

There are as many guys in coaching who do a lousy job as there are in the media. Those are two professions that are…

The goal is to make practice more difficult, physically/mentally, than anything your players will face during a game.

My practices were not set up to be easy or enjoyed.

The key is not the will to win... everybody has that. It is the will to prepare to win that is important.

I've always felt that, you know, the Almighty has a lot of things to do other than help my basketball team.

To me, the most enjoyable part is the practice and preparation

Good planning avoids the need for fixing up a project that plowed ahead without thought... about potential pitfalls.

Victory favors the team making the fewest mistakes.

Everybody wants to be on a championship team, but nobody wants to come to practice.

Basketball is a full court game, so every drill must be done full court.

Pat has been instrumental in what we've done here so far and the most selfish thing for me is that I want to see…

Everybody hears, but few listen.

Defense is all about helping. No one can guard a good dribbler, You have to walk kids through how to help and then how…