B.I.A.H. Quotables

Everybody's favorite weekly B.I.A.H column is back for round-number-two.

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 hit us up on twitter.

The big news of the week is that TCU, located in Forth Worth, Texas, will be joining the Big East conference. We all know this doesn't make a lick of sense outside of the football realm. Former TCU hoops coach Billy Tubbs had a comical quote about the conference-hopping that TCU has done:

"The only league I don't think they can get in is the NFL or the NBA. They've been in every other league imaginable."

The Horned Frogs have been members of the Texas Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the Southwestern Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, the Mountain West Conference, and Conference-USA.

But the best quote involving TCU's geographical change to the East Coast comes from Louisville coach Rick Pitino:

"I have made the suggestion to him in terms of the 18th team not going for Villanova in football but going with MIT because that's what it's going out to take to figure out the other sports in the Big East. We do need MIT drastically because John is not figuring this one out."

After the jump, more quotes from a busy week of college hoops.

NBA scouts were out to watch Colorado’s backcourt of Cory Higgins and Alec Burks on Sunday as they faced Harvard in a non-conference match-up. Colorado had been picked by many to be the sexy pick to make some noise in the Big-12 this season, despite losing their head coach Jeff Bzdelik. But it was Harvard's Keith Wright who had the impressive performance, tallying 19 points, 9 boards, six assists and three blocks as the Crimson defeated the Buffaloes, 82-66. Wright put on a clinic on how to finish near the basket, dunking anything and everything he could:

“I just caught the ball and I turned around and I was like, ‘Oh, the rim’s here, let me dunk it.’ It’s what my teammates keep telling me, ‘You need to dunk a lot more,’ so I took it to heart.’’

Illinois beat North Carolina on Tuesday night as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. For Illini senior Bill Cole, this would be his chance to get some revenge for UNC's 2005 victory over the Illini, in the National Championship game:

"We have to stick up for the guys that came before us and try to steal one back for us. Because we feel like they stole one from the program in 2005, so we're going to go try and hit them right back."

Mark Few is one of my favorite coaches in the entire country. He's a lifer - no intention to ever leave Gonzaga for a loftier BCS-conference job. He recruits well, he always builds a tough schedule, and he gets the most out of his players. Plus he is brutally honest. He realizes that his job takes a big chunk of his life away, and to him, that's kinda scary:

"It has nothing to do with basketball.It has to do with waking up one day, because we’re so involved in coaching, and my kid’s grown a beard and he’s smoking a cigarette on the couch, wearing a wife-beater. And I’m like, ‘Who are you? You’re not A.J., my 10-year-old.’ And he’s like, ‘Yes, I am — when you were out recruiting, coaching, running all over the place, I grew up.’"

This will be the first of many B.I.A.H Quotables appearances for Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. Even with a 20pt-victory over Cornell on Tuesday night, Jim Boeheim was not happy with his team's performance. He got on Scoop Jardine pretty hard:

"He was horrible," Boeheim said. "He couldn't be any worse than he played tonight."

During the four games since his breakout performance against Detroit, Jardine has shot just 9-for-42 (21.4 percent) from the field. And that's why Boeheim doesn't want to hear about his assist total. Standing behind the podium with a taped-up left ring finger, Boeheim said he could have done the same.

"I could get seven assists in a game with a bad finger," he said. "He was nowhere in the game tonight."

It must feel like deja vu all over again for Roy Williams and the Tar Heels. His team, chalk-full of McDonald's All-Americans, is struggling early on for the second year in a row. Even UNC's best player, and star of the freshman class, Harrison Barnes, has had his struggles, and ESPN has been quick to point this out to viewers. As expected, Coach Williams is none to pleased with the World Wide Leader:

"Harrison’s a freshman. And I don’t mean to jump on anybody, but after the first game we play, and he had [several] turnovers, and ESPN does a special on how great he is. And then ESPN did something to me that was very embarrassing to me today – put up that that a kid’s 1175 in field goal percentage in the country; that’s just ridiculous. And then somebody says, ‘Well, if he hadn’t have gone 0-for 12 against Minnesota, I’m sure he’d be in the top 1,000.’ That’s sick.

"If you’ve got enough [gumption] to make somebody a big hero like that, admit that you were wrong, and stop picking on the kid. … It’s silly, if you’re going to anoint the guy and three weeks later crucify him, that’s ridiculous. He didn’t ask to be voted first-team pre-season All-America.”

Billy Donovan's Florida Gators, ranked 16th in the country, were upset by Central Florida on Wednesday night, 57-54. The head coach was upset with the way the seniors carried themselves:

“Those older guys are, to me, less concerned about trying to do something great collectively as a group and are more wrapped up in what’s going to happen to me. All of our older guys are way, way too wrapped up in their offense.”

“I said, let’s get Vernon the ball. But we’re too wrapped up in I didn’t get a shot now or I missed my last one.”

They’re not playing together and they’re not utilizing each others’ individual talents. The disappointing part is these guys all played together last year. We have a bunch of guys on the floor that make nobody better.”

Our final quotable of the weeks comes from B.I.A.H's founding father, Rob Dauster. While discussing his disdain for middle school recruiting services (in reference to Baylor pursuing a 6-foot-3 11-year-old), Dauster dropped this gem:

I've railed on the recruitment and the ranking of prepubescent boys many times, and as recently as September. I don't have the desire to do it again. Thinking about it makes me feel like I belong on an episode of Law and Order SVU.