The Wizzard of Westwood

At first glance this looks like something Yogi Bera might have said. But when you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Quick is good. Quick is decisive. Quick wins championships. Hurry is caused by desperation. Hurry causes mistakes. Hurry means turnovers. Hurry can cost you the game.
This is a quote from the great John Wooden, the greatest basketball coach and teacher this country has ever produced. You probably know that he passed away last week at the age of 99.
If you never saw him coach or watched one of his teams play you really missed something. I was in high school during the high point of John Wooden's career. It was amazing. It seems like his teams NEVER LOST. And they seldom did. They went 88 games without losing before Notre Dame upset them in South Bend. They won 10 national championships in 12 years! Nobody has ever done that. Not Dean Smith, Not Bob Knight, not Coach K (I can't spell his name either). John Wooden won all those national titles having to change players every year.
Back then freshmen could not play on the varsity so he only had Kareem Abdul Jabar (then Lew Alcindor) and Bill Walton and others for three years! His teams were so fundamentally sound it was ridiculous. They weren't flashy. They didn't dunk (it was illegal back then anyway). They used the back board and banked their jumpshots in because Wooden taught them how to use the angles. He taught them not only basketball but Geometry as well! They played a zone press defense that hounded teams into turn over after turnover. John Wooden would never let his teams over celebrate. They never beat their chest and said "look at me, Look at me" like today's players. They just beat your brains out with sound fundamentals and walked off the court afterword with their heads held high, because they knew that this one was over and another one was coming up and John Wooden always said, "You have to do it over and over and over again". Those of you who never saw him coach or one of his teams play, I encourage you to research this man. Learn the principles of his pyramid for success. You will learn why he was far more than just a basketball coach and why, sadly, we'll never see his like again.