John Calipari

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

The thing I can tell you about coaching is that we make decision and career moves when your nerves and emotions are still raw, right after the season. It's the worst profession for that.

He helped my career, helped me basketball-wise and every other way. I'm a big fan of Thibs.

Kentucky is the best job in basketball coaching. Why would I leave?

In my mind, I've got the best job in the country.

My job is to protect my guys.

Keep things in perspective. It's never quite as good as it seems, it's never quite as bad as it seems.

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

The problem with my guys, all my guys, they come in and improve themselves so fast in college: they go from 'He's this and this' to 'That kid is the first pick or second pick. Four. Five. Seven.' Tell me about those teams: not great. So my guys are walking into bad situations.

People want to see how we get teams to come together so quickly. They want to see how we get young guys to play so hard and so unselfish. I'm fine with that. I have no problem sharing that.

If they're trying to get high school kids to go to the D-League, I will be shouting from mountaintops saying, 'What is this going to do to a generation of kids who say, 'All right, I'm going to do this,' you get one or two years to make it, and now you're out without any opportunities. Who's taking care of those kids now?'

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.