Athletic? Duke? Coach K won't argue the point
Nov 30, 2009
Duke scored its most impressive win of the season Friday when it beat Connecticut, and that led to an amusing response between a reporter and Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski over the athletic ability of the current Blue Devils.
“Doug Gottlieb [a former Oklahoma State player who is now an ESPN commentator] called your team alarmingly unathletic. Did you think today answered that question pretty emphatically?” the reporter asked.
“He should be an expert on alarmingly nonathletic,” Krzyzewski responded. “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 nonathletic.
“Actually, we're pretty athletic; we're just not as athletic as Connecticut. [Kyle] Singler is a really good athlete. Lance [Thomas], Miles [Plumlee. Jon [Scheyer] 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 nonathletic. 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.”
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RE: Athletic? Duke? Coach K won't argue the point
What does "athletic" really mean? Leaping ability? One thing I have noticed from Roy Williams' teams is that nobody can jump...at all. Then Ty Lawson goes to the NBA and shows that he can dunk over people.I think that great college coaches actually preach against jumping out of the gym. I think that Roy, especially, tells his players he'd rather have them near the ground where they can react and stay in control and avoid injuries rather than trying to stay in the air a long time and leave their fate up to others. Perhaps K also devalues leaping ability.
Is Carolina "athletic"? Well, leaping ability isn't there, and the guards are not speedy..however they have the fastest group of 3, 4, and 5 players that perhaps the ACC has ever seen. That will never be appreciated as "athletic", though.
