When Louisville Head Basketball Coach Rick Pitino recently spoke to the Boys & Girls Clubs here in Springfield, Missouri, he told them that when he was 25 and became head basketball coach at Boston University, “I wasn’t ready.” And as he tells it, according the Springfield News-Leader newspaper, he’s had a career that’s overcome an ill-prepared beginning. “I was able to get away with making young mistakes.” I’ve always maintained that the phrase “Timing is Everything” wasn’t accurate since very often we’re put in a position to be successful but because of being unprepared, we weren’t able to take advantage of it. That happened to me the first time I was able to work with a Division I men’s basketball team. I wasn’t prepared at the time for issues and problems that surfaced in our team meetings. Today, the situation is much different. One of my favorite John Wooden quotes is: “If you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”