Few human beings anywhere choose their words more carefully and wisely than University of Tennessee at Chattanooga women's basketball coach Jim Foster.
In fact, among other hoops coaches, only the San Antonio Spurs' taciturn Gregg Popovich may volunteer less to the general public than Foster.
So it was indeed a rare and unexpected treat to have the Hall of Famer share his wisdom and wit for 20 or more minutes Tuesday afternoon during a news conference to discuss his Mocs' inclusion in the Preseason WNIT field as well as several significant rules changes to the women's game, including a move to four 10-minute quarters instead of two 20-minute halves.
But it was what he volunteered regarding the size of the women's basketball (about 9.23 inches in diameter) as opposed to the men's ball (about 9.55 inches) that may be most remembered. Especially for those of us who believe the world might be a more enlightened and humane place if more of its leaders were women (though not necessarily Hillary Clinton).
"As with most things with women, a bunch of guys made that decision," Foster noted. "And as with most things, they got it wrong."
Feel free to copy that to your nearest refrigerator door or blackboard. Just remember to send all royalty checks to Foster should it wind up on a bumper sticker or T-shirt.
That gem aside, the coach who's won more than 840 games and taken four different schools to the NCAA tournament believes the change to quarters over halves could be a good thing.
"It will bring a little more strategy to the game," he said. "Maybe make it a little more fast-paced."
Foster wouldn't even mind both the men's and women's college games becoming even faster paced by switching to the same 24-second clock the NBA and the international game use, along with an 8-second rule to move past midcourt, though both the college men and women have held fast to 10 seconds on that rule.
"It certainly hasn't seemed to hurt the NBA or international game," he said.
With the lithe and limber Jasmine Joyner back to patrol the middle for the Mocs, he also likes the new edict for officials to limit physical contact to one hand on a post player with her back to the basket.
"We'll have to see how it's called," Foster said. "But anything that takes advantage of her quickness."
As for a new rule that allows all timeouts in the final minute of regulation to place the ball in the frontcourt - a la the NBA - Foster was his usual coy self when asked if he might steal a few plays from Golden State coach Steve Kerr and Cleveland coach David Blatt during the remaining games of the NBA Finals.
"Maybe if I had three scorers like (Golden State's) Steph Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green, who can all catch and shoot and score," he mused. "But we might have only one player like that. I don't know that what they do translates to what we'd do unless (Cleveland's) LeBron James has a daughter coming here to school."
He is pretty sure that at least one group of coaches would like it if their sport could eliminate more than half the playing surface inside the final minute of a game.
"I'm sure (offensive) football coaches would love it," Foster said with a grin.
However, he isn't so certain that the new free-throw rules that now will place players on the foul line for two free throws instead of the old one-and-one on the fifth foul of each 10-minute quarter (it was the seventh foul in a 20-minute half ) is good for his team.
"If my team's good at free throws, I'll like it," he said. "If not, we better become good at rebounding missed free throws."
It's hard to see this year's Mocs not being at least as good, if not better, than last year's 29-4 squad that ran the table in the Southern Conference for the second year in a row, earned a final RPI of 22 and a No. 7 NCAA tournament seed, the best in school history.
Even with perennial behemoth Baylor, dangerous DePaul and salty South Florida in the Preseason WNIT field, it could be strongly argued that the Mocs are no worse than the event's fourth best team, which should earn them at least one home game among their three guaranteed contests.
After all, how many NCAA tourney teams will welcome back four starters, a fifth player in Aryanna Gilbert who started as both a freshman and a sophomore before a season-ending knee injury last November, as well as 6-foot-5 redshirt Ashlyn Wert, transfer Queen Alford (a two-time All-Atlantic Sun Conference player at Jacksonville) and gifted reserves Moses Johnson, Sydney Vanlandingham and Ansley Chilton?
"We'll see," Foster said. "We'll know in a few weeks how hard they have worked this summer."
With a visit from defending national champ Connecticut and road games at Tennessee and Stanford, we already know how hard this season's schedule is, regardless of which team the Mocs draw in the Preseason WNIT when the brackets are announced in a few weeks.
Referring to last season's monumental home wins over Top 10 foes UT and Stanford, Foster was quick to caution: "It's one thing to beat teams here. It's quite another to win on the road."
Nor, quite understandably, is he completely over last year's NCAA No. 7 seed, given that UTC entered the tournament with a No. 20 RPI, which should have earned it a 5 spot.
"You do the math," Foster said.
Yet overall, having considered all the rules changes, Foster appears happy enough with the future of his game to aim a gentle dig at his collegiate men's counterpart.
"The most reluctant to change," he noted, "are the men's basketball coaches."
It figures.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com