March 10, 2001
Head Coach Mike Montgomery
Opening Statement:
That's the outcome I was looking for. The pressure seems to never go away. We really tried to convince the kids about how important this was. I think they knew that, but they were a little loose and kept talking about getting ready to play and coming back and winning and making sure we won the [Pac-10] outright. It turns out, we were in pretty good shape in terms of how they responded to it. It's been an unbelievable season. 28-2. Outright [Pac-10] Champions. These kids have been so focused and stayed the course all the way through this thing. We got everybody in the game, got everyone some playing time, which I think is important. Obviously we need to get Justin [Davis] back, but we didn't run anybody into the ground. The kids trademark has been defense all season long, and that's what we did. It feels so good to watch the kids enjoy, watch the students enjoy, watch the people who supported us all year long enjoy the kids and the championship and all the stuff that goes along with it. We'll take a deep breath, a big sigh, now to enjoy what we've done and get ready tomorrow night to face the tournament, which is our third season. It's what everybody focuses on, we know it's important and we're going to go out and try to be competitive and represent our conference and ourselves as best we can.
Q. Is there any pride in winning the last regular season Pac-10 title?
A. It's not pride. Somewhere down the road, you'll look back and it will be a trivia question - who won the last conference championship before they had a conference tournament and they'll say Stanford. Someday the grandkids will look back and say - I think my granddad coached that team or something like that. That's how that stuff works.
Q. Are you better prepared going into the tournament this year?
A. I think if Justin gets healthy and we can get him back on track I think we will be. Each of the last couple years, we've lost somebody going into the tournament. I think we're in pretty good shape health-wise. Jason [Collins] responded well all season long, and Teyo [Johnson] has gotten a lot of playing time, so now I have four post guys that I can use intermittently because Justin gives us a different dimension. He's big enough to play a bigger player. We have leadership, confidence. From that standpoint, we're in pretty good shape.
Q. What was it like watching the three seniors play in their final home game?
A. It's always hard because of how much those kids mean to your program. Knowing you have those guys - we're obviously better with our starting lineup and three of them are seniors - it's always hard emotionally. And I believe it must be hard for those kids to know they won't ever get to play at Maples again. They're going to play more games, but it's the last time they'll ever come out in this environment, and they've put a lot of time and energy into it. It's emotional for everybody, but the importance of the game kept my emotions in check a little bit. We had to win this game.
Q. What pleased you the most about the last four games?
A. The results. Everybody looks and sees you win by twenty or you played them close. College basketball is too competitive and the margin of error is too close to have the expectation that you'll go and beat someone by a substantial margin just because. There are a lot of good basketball players. Awvee Storey [finished] 16 and 16 [points and rebounds] - and he wasn't supposed to play. The last time somebody wasn't supposed to play, his backup got 29 [points]. There are just too many good basketball players. This is a result oriented business. At this point, it doesn't make any difference how well we play as long if you can get the results you need, that's all you can ask for.
Ryan Mendez
Q. How did you miss that shot?
A. I don't know. I thought it was in. It just didn't. Oh well.
Q. Can you talk about the three Pac-10 titles?
A. So far this season, it's been a dream season for all us. Just the way all the guys get along - and I know we say that year in and year out, but new guys come and old guys leave. We have great freshmen and great chemistry on this team, and it's a pleasure to come every single day and compete with these guys. A lot of people think this is the end of our career at Stanford, but this is just the beginning. We have a lot to prove in the coming weeks. We're re-energized and we're hungry.
Q. Can you talk about playing your final home game?
A. It's special. It's special having such great support from all the fans and the students. It was especially rewarding having my family there. Honestly, I didn't look at this like that. Maybe in a couple months, I'll realize I'm never going to play in Maples again, but I don't think it's sunk in yet. I don't feel it's the end of anything, I feel it's us starting over, us proving ourselves in the tournament again.
Michael McDonald
Q. Can you talk about playing your final home game?
A. I thought it was great today. I thought we were really focusing on the game today and not getting caught up in the emotion of senior day. I was so focused on going out there and winning the Pac-10 Championship. It's been great, and we'll be back here on Monday practicing, so it's not like we won't shoot on these courts again.
Q. Were you surprised by Coach Montgomery's reaction - trying to get the crowd pumped up?
A. I think Coach really wanted the championship for ourselves. I know last year when we lost to Arizona and then beat Arizona State for a share, but in my sophomore year we won it outright and we were pretty pumped up. We really wanted this championship.
Jarron Collins
Q. Can you talk about the end of your playing career with Jason?
A. It's been a great opportunity. We realized it going into the season that this was our last time in all likelihood that we'll play together. It's a little bit sad, but we got here and we realized what we always do - that the team is the most important thing and we wanted to win the basketball game and the Pac-10 Championship.