 |
 Head Coach Mike Montgomery |
Estelle Seaton, mother of Mark (Cypress, CA)
What former, not current, players that you've coached would you select foran All Star Stanford team? We congratulate you on yet another outstandingseason. We hope to be able to get to Maples for Senior Night. Our best tothe basketball staff and your family.
Coach Montgomery: Brevin Knight at the point, (Todd) Lichti at the off, (Adam) Keefe at thefour, Howard Wright (center), and (Andrew) Vlahov (small forward).
John A.Chandler (Dana Point, CA)
Congrats to you, your coaching staff and of course your team on a fantasticseason to date. The team seems to improve in so many areas each game!Question: does your coaching staff determine in advance of each game thebasic types of offense the players will run, e.g. more inside vs. anoutside game, or a desired number of 3 pt. shots per game? Or is most ofthis basically determined by your opponent and the defense it offers?
Coach Montgomery: Definitely determined by the defense and what you're given. Most of theteams decide to take away something, or try to take away something:doubling down at the post, fronting at the post, pressuring the leads -- soyou kind of have to run offense until you get something that you'recomfortable with. That changes from game to game, and hopefully you have acombination of inside and outside poeple that can adjust to it.
Rodney Sparks (Los Angeles, CA)
Amazing job coach. At this point in the season, with an NCAA bid all butlocked up, do you start planning a bit for the tourney? I know you can'tlook past anyone, but do you start looking to try to rest guys morethan usual so that they have fresher legs come March? You've done afabulous job - don't ever leave Stanford!!!!!!
Coach Montgomery: No. What we're trying to do is win the Pac-10 right now, and you would hateto lose a game or two and not have a chance to win the Pac-10 in deferenceto the NCAA Tournament, although that's the problem. Everybody seems topoint to the tournament more than the games that you're playing during theregular year. I don't like to do that. I think the regular season hastremendous significance. The Pac-10 title is very difficult, and yet agreat achievement. So we will continue to try to win as many games aspossible in pursuit of that goal, hoping that when we get to the tournamentthat by having depth, we're still strong enough to compete and play.
Lionel Peterson (Yorba Linda, CA)
Do you feel that anything less than the Final Four this year would be adisappointment? Beat Cal!!!
Coach Montgomery: No.
David Wilson (Palo Alto, CA)
Congrats on a great season so far. Earlier in the season (Duke, Auburn, andothers), it seemed like the guys could really shut down the other teaminside. However, against Arizona and Cal, the twins and/or Mad Dog had sometrouble one-on-one defending the low post. We don't seem to be getting asmuch weakside help. In addition, Curtis B. seems a bit over-eager since thePac-10 season started, so he's not as much of a force. Do you see these asproblems? What can you do to better shut off the inside?
Coach Montgomery: Truthfully, the teams in our conference have better post guys than Auburnand Duke did. The way the game is called is a factor in the game, and it'sdifficult. We've had people get in foul trouble. The other thing is that wehave opted on many occasions not to help at the post, to allow ourperimeter players to minimize the other team's perimeter guys, and thatputs more pressure on the post without help. And that's hard. The bottomline is trying to win and minimize other people's offensive skills andtheir best players, and that's what we're trying to do.
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