The BIAH Quotables: Duke vs. UConn

This a new feature we are trying out here at BIAH this season. Throughout the week, we are going to post some notable quotes or excerpts that show up in our google reader. Stupid people say stupid things 24 hours a day, and being somehow associated with the college hoops landscape does not preclude that fact. That said, we will not limit our quotables to the simple and idiotic, as the insightful and intelligent will also be highlighted. Feel free to pass along any quotables you stumble across to contactbiah@gmail.com or @ballinisahabit.

This entire quotables post would likely have not occurred if a reporter had not asked Coach K his thoughts on Doug Gottlieb's comment that Duke was "alarmingly unathletic" during halftime of the Duke ASU broadcast. Coach K's initial response:

He should be an expert on alarmingly non-athletic. So I'll have to take a look at that a little bit closer because it comes from an expert who actually knows what it feels like to be alarmingly non-athletic.

Actually, we're pretty athletic; we're just not as athletic as UConn. Singler is a really good athlete. Lance, Miles. Jon is not leaping tall buildings with a single bound but he's a real good athlete. But I wouldn't call us like this athletic team, but we're not amazingly non-athletic. And I would rather not get into a discussion with Doug because I have respect of his stature and he should have his arguments with people of similar stature. That would be a good thing.

When he was asked about how his team grabbed 25 offensive boards against a team with the size and athleticism of UConn:

Well, we're big too. Non-athletic but very big.

But this was the best of the night. Jeff Goodman asked "Kyle was 2-of-12, six points, you shoot 29%. If I told you those numbers coming into..." before Coach K cut him off:

I would have been very worried ... Or mad at you. I would have told you to go talk to Doug Gottlieb. You don't have to do that by the way. I won't punish you like that.

Nolan Smith on how athletic Duke will be when Mason Plumlee gets healthy:

Even more athletic than people don't think we are.

Jon Scheyer, when asked if Duke being considered unathletic is a product of the number of white players on their roster (via @AdamZagoria):

I think that's a possibility. There's definitely the thought of that. We have some really athletic [white] guys like Miles and Mason [Plumlee], for example, and I don't really hear people talking about them being great athletes. So I don't know what that means. But I do know that.

More of Scheyer, this time talking directly about his athleticism:

I'm not going to say I'm the most athletic guy in college basketball. But I would say I'm one of the smartest and I know how to play the game and I think that's one thing our team overall. We have guys who really know how to play the game and we are athletic, so for me I don't consider myself one of the most athletic guys but I'm athletic enough. I'm fine.

Scheyer, who basically had to defend his entire skill set, handled the questions well:

When they talk about my game, people have never described it as athletic so I'm not getting offended eight years later when they're still not saying it. But I hope people do see that I play the game the right way and I'm a competitor and I want to be a winner and that's something I'm out to prove this year.