Top 80 Don Meyer Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “We have 2,500 students and an 8,000-seat basketball arena. You do the math on how important basketball is in Aberdeen.”

— Don Meyer

52. “It is not what you teach, but what you emphasize.”

— Don Meyer

53. “If a farmer and his family can get up at 5:30 every morning to milk cows, surly we can get up at that time to practice basketball.”

— Don Meyer

54. “We had 10 turnovers tonight. Each one gets worse as you go. It is like prior arrests: the 10th one may not have been that bad, but when you have had nine prior ones, it looks pretty bad.”

— Don Meyer

55. “When I go in for heart surgery, I want a full-time surgeon. I don’t want some guy who just does it part-time between rounds of golf. You want a guy who is doing it all the time and is always reading and learning about the most recent techniques.”

— Don Meyer

56. “We have to get a lot tougher. If you get involved in a street fight, you can’t lay down in the street and act like you’re dead because they will kill you for sure. You might as well get up and fight.”

— Don Meyer

57. “Quickness more than anything else should determine your amount of pressure on the ball.”

— Don Meyer

58. “If it comes down to you or the program that decision was made long ago.”

— Don Meyer

59. “Make the practices like games and the games like practices.”

— Don Meyer

60. “In practice, don’t just run basketball drills, teach the players how to play basketball.”

— Don Meyer

61. “When the legs go, the heart and the head follow quickly behind.”

— Don Meyer

62. “Tough minded enough to do the necessary things – this is the epitome of what a team is.”

— Don Meyer

63. “Study people who can teach you how to deal with people.”

— Don Meyer

64. “Put your two best players away from the ball and bring it back to them.”

— Don Meyer

65. “Players who are late say that their time is more important than the team.”

— Don Meyer

66. “Only run special plays for special players; find plays that fit your players.”

— Don Meyer

67. “If I cover my head with my hands, it means deny the ball to the opponent’s ball handler.”

— Don Meyer

68. “You have to clean out the pig barn every week because you know your pigs are in there doing their jobs every day.”

— Don Meyer

69. “Let your players know that you love them.”

— Don Meyer

70. “In the end, what your own troops do is more important than who they are marching against.”

— Don Meyer

71. “We sure didn’t play great, but we played hard. And I can live with that.”

— Don Meyer

72. “We painted a beautiful picture, but we just didn’t finish it. Finishing is the difference between a beautiful picture and a masterpiece.”

— Don Meyer

73. “There is a lot of difference at McDonald’s between the guy in the back making the fries and the manager up front who is running the place.”

— Don Meyer

74. “As a coach, you’re just trying to figure out how to keep a team on edge. You’ve got to find that edge.”

— Don Meyer

75. “You build your program from the ideas of great coaches.”

— Don Meyer

76. “Sometimes the best recruits are the ones you don’t get.”

— Don Meyer

77. “Coach like the coach you want to be ten years from now.”

— Don Meyer

78. “Players must do what you want them to do in pressure situations.”

— Don Meyer

79. “If you have to ‘try hard’ to ’try hard, you are already beaten.”

— Don Meyer

80. “You have to learn to play with what you’ve got.”

— Don Meyer

81. “Nobody travels better than Northern State fans and nobody knows the game better than Northern State fans. If I’d die and went to heaven and I was coaching, it would be at Wachs Arena.”

— Don Meyer

82. “Can your player make a curl cut and score in the lane? If so, he is the cutter.”

— Don Meyer

83. “Good shooters take the shots; best shooters take most of the shots.”

— Don Meyer

84. “Successful basketball coaches are those that subscribe to a system that is based on sound fundamental teachings.”

— Don Meyer

85. “Don’t be in a hurry to change during the season.”

— Don Meyer