Refuse to Lose - Hardcover

Calipari, John

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0345408012 ISBN 13: 9780345408013

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996

Synopsis

"Realistic people place roadblocks in front of themselves," says John Calipari, "I'm unrealistic in a positive way." And he gets results. As one of the hottest coaches in college basketball, John Calipari transformed the once-dispirited UMass Minutemen into a #1-ranked force to be reckoned with--taking them to the Final Four for the first time in history. Calipari did more than develop a phenomenal team. He built an outstanding program for success.
What is Calipari's winning philosophy? Develop a "Refuse to Lose" attitude. Though you play to win whatever the score, how you play the game counts. True, you will lose some games, but the way you deal with those losses is part of the attitude of refusing to lose. Calipari's rules: Stay within the rules. Don't blame others, take responsibility yourself. Review the tape and learn from it. These are the life skills he taught his players--and they resulted in both professional and personal victory. If you love your kids, Calipari believes, they'll go through walls for you. Now you can apply these winning strategies to your own life--with your family, your co-workers, and yourself--to any endeavor in which there's a goal to achieve.
The formula works. A man driven by competition and the desire to excel, John Calipari plays to win, rather than playing not to lose. In Refuse to Lose, he insists you step out of your comfort zone. When you're comfortable, you're not doing your best. But when you raise the bar above your comfort level, you can accomplish things you never thought possible. He will show you how mistakes can be powerful learning tools and how adversity can become opportunity.

In the bestselling tradition Rick Pitino's Full Court Pressure and Pat Riley's The Winner Within, John Calipari tells an amazing story of triumph and grit that is both universal and unique. Powerful, optimistic, and spirited, Refuse to Lose offers a dynamic philosophy that is contagious. Catch it and win!

About this title

From Booklist:

Calipari is the newly hired coach and general manager of the NBA's New Jersey Nets, a post he obtained as a result of resurrecting the University of Massachusetts basketball program. This is his personal account of how he took the UMass Minutemen from basketball laughing stock to the Final Four in just eight seasons and subsequently landed the most lucrative coaching position ever awarded to a person with no NBA experience. Like many college coaches, Calipari succeeded more by creating a winning atmosphere than by on-the-court strategy. The road wasn't without pitfalls, though, including a bitter feud with Temple coach John Chaney that left both men embarrassed. Though this isn't as inspirational as Northwestern football coach Gary Barnett's recent High Hopes , it offers an entertaining and informative glimpse inside the creation of a successful major-college sports program. Expect significant demand, especially on the Eastern seaboard. Wes Lukowsky

From Publishers Weekly:

Having worked as an assistant at Kansas and Pitt, Calipari took over the basketball program at the University of Massachusetts in 1988, after the school had recorded 10 straight losing seasons. Adopting the motto that he and coauthor Weiss (Full Court Pressure) also use for this conventional autobiography, Calipari proved himself a fine motivator of young players and an astute manipulator of television to publicize UMass's increasingly successful organization. Each year, his teams improved on the record of the previous season, climaxing in 1996, when his players had a 35-2 record, were ranked first in the nation for much of the season and went to the NCAA's Final Four. The star, Marcus Camby, was judged the best in the nation, and Calipari himself was chosen coach of the year by at least four court groups. He is now poised to take over the NBA's hapless New Jersey Nets. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0345408012
• ISBN 13: 9780345408013
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 285