The BIAH Quotables

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.

UNC coach Roy Williams discussing player production, or lack thereof:

I did tell the guys in the huddle one time that we're getting close to that point that I'm not going to play everybody just because I like their smile, that you've got to produce when you get out there.

Gonzaga coach Mark Few thinks his team is pretty tough this year:

We're built to hit, I'll tell you that. I noticed that in practice. I think we've got some different avenues we could go. We can play off our brawn. Last year, we just had to play off our skill, and we were really skilled.

Michigan State coach Tom Izzo agrees:

That Harris kid, if he keeps improving, is going to take them from good to great. He can do a variety of things. He can run the floor, shoot the three. He can pass. He goes every time to the offensive boards – relentlessly.

Doug Gottlieb is a polarizing figure in college hoops circles. Some love him, some hate him, but you cannot argue he always seems to be spot-on at making team assesments and providing analysis:

So does this impressive MSG performance mean Syracuse is the new Big East favorite? Well, UConn struggles to shoot and has no big men at the level of the Orange. Nova still seems to be searching for what it lost in Dante Cunningham. Georgetown has three good players, but unless the Hoyas bore opponents to death, they are not winning the Big East. Louisville was really impressive against an undermanned Arkansas team, but no one can trust Edgar Sosa to be consistent yet. Pitt is missing its top two guards and the Panthers are down anyway. WVU has two great wings, but without Alex Ruoff, can the Mountaineers shoot? And how good is their point guard play?

The New York Times had a great article about the "youthfulness" of Memphis coach Boy Wonder aka Josh Pastner:

Pastner, the new Memphis coach, says he has never sipped alcohol, smoked a cigarette, tried caffeine or drunk a soda. He is no goody two-shoes; he is just the coaching equivalent of a gym rat.

Former Arizona head coach Lute Olsen, the man who recruited Pastner as a player, had good things to say:

Basketball was something that he was so passionate about, you knew it was going to be something that was going to be critical to him in his life, and he was noted for being a guy that was a 24-hour-a-day guy. He just always was available to call or talk about anybody that was a prospect, and there wasn’t anybody he didn't know about.

A lot of good quotables from the Tennessee/Purdue tilt. First up, UT guard Bobby Maize, defending his teammate Wayne Chism, who had been criticized for taking an ill-advised 3-pointer at the end of the game:

I turned the corner and saw two guys there, so who else would I rather have shooting that shot than Wayne. Wayne has been making them, and that's a shot we'll take every time.

We're gonna disagree with you there Bobby. Down one with under 10 seconds left, that's probably not your ideal shot. Chism says he didn't get off a good-enough shot:

I didn't like the catch, but with time winding down I knew I had to shoot it.The shot didn't come off good, and I tried to chase it down, but they beat me to the ball.

Bruce Pearl says that the play was set up for Maze, not Chism:

We were trying to run a high ball screen for Bobby. He had been getting into the lane effectively. They did a good job of jamming him, and Bobby made an excellent decision to kick it out to Wayne, who was there all by himself.

More from coach Pearl, who believes his team could have won:

It was a physical game, but it would have been even more physical if both teams weren't a little fatigued from playing [Sunday] night. I thought both teams played very well, and I thought we played well enough to win.

A great quotable from Yancy Gates of Cincinnati, who helped the Bearcats beat #24-ranked Vanderbilt:

I think this was a statement game for us. We were actually watching it this morning, me and my roommate. We watched it and we saw they were No. 24 and that kind of gave me some incentive. We feel we needed to get the win and after breakfast some of the guys were texting about it.

Apparently, things got better after breakfast:

We were really focused at breakfast this morning. There wasn't a lot of running around. I felt ready to go from the tipoff. The players were asking me, 'Are you ready?' My game plan was to be ready to go on the glass. I was able to get out ahead and get some easy buckets. That really got me going.