Finally, a basketball coach says something interesting.

I haven't cared much for the topic of high school basketball for about as long as the period since Floyd Central's last sectional title, which came when the Berlin Wall still stood.

The announcement itself was about to pass unnoticed ...

Floyd Central names Todd Sturgeon boys basketball coach, by Justin Sokeland (Courier-Journal)

Floyd Central hired former college coach Todd Sturgeon as its new boys’ basketball coach during Friday’s meeting of the New Albany-Floyd County Schools board of trustees.

 ... but I kept reading, and despite the cliche-ridden utterances commonly emitted by the basketball coaching profession, guess what? Two very interesting observations were forthcoming.

(Sturgeon) also wants his team to mirror the discipline and toughness of college teams such as Virginia, Wisconsin and Butler.

“Those are the teams that reflect what I would like to put on the floor,” Sturgeon said. “We have an outstanding academic school, so I would like to think we would play a team reflective of that, that we will play intelligent basketball and also tough basketball.

“My biggest focus is changing the mentality. I think we need to practice more and play fewer games. We have an AAU culture in American basketball right now that Floyd Central, in particular, has suffered from. We just have to roll up our sleeves and get to work, concentrate on getting better today. If we get better at the fundamental things, we’ll see large improvements in the win-loss columns.”

Sturgeon's incoming analysis yields an under-utilized asset (intelligence) and posits a plausible fix: Combine intelligence with attention to a culture change of stressing fundamentals.

For the first time in a quarter-century, my curiosity is piqued.

Can someone please remind me to pay attention this fall?