Coach

My job is to protect my guys.

We don't get every kid. We get the ones we are supposed to get. It just kind of plays out that way, and it always has.

If I'm up at 4 in the morning, it's because I'm just coming in.

I don't read the papers; I don't listen to radio.

You wish there was more consistency about how they do things in the NCAA.

I think part of the reason some coaches don't want to be involved with social media is that they expect to be able to do it at a certain level. A lot of them are like, 'I'm not going to do it if we can't hit 100,000 or 200,000 followers.' Well, you're not going to right away.

Don't encourage 8th-, 9th- and 10th-graders to forgo education just to go to the G League.

Every one of us in this country is based on you've gotta take care of yourself.

If you can get a second-round pick that makes it, it's unbelievable for that franchise, what you save and all the other things to build. You're always looking for guys like that.

My life, even as a college student, has all been through the NCAA, and I'm telling you there's so much good that comes out of it.

What I've always tried to do is undersell and overdeliver.

No one will steal my joy.

As long as I'm at Kentucky, you've got to be able to take the shots, or don't stay at Kentucky. To be the coach at Kentucky and get what I get, you can't be a 35-year-old coach whose never been fired. I've been fired.

There are certain people I do want to absolutely dislike me. And I want them to paint me as their enemy. Because I want nothing to do with them.

The whole thing is develop players, develop them as people, develop teams.

I'd love to be coaching kids three or four years. You kidding me? That's what I used to do.

If they want to go to college and then leave, let them leave when they want to leave. Why would we force a kid to stay? 'Well - it's good for the game?' It's about these kids and their families.

They want it all - all As, all wins by 20, and want the highest GPA. Don't coach at Kentucky if you can't accept that.

More than half the G League is going to be high school kids that are trying to make it. I hope I'm wrong. I absolutely hope I'm wrong.

At times, we, as coaches, try to shove guys as square pegs into round holes and keep hammering away.