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| Mike Montgomery prepares his team to play Arizona and Arizona State this week. |  |
Cardinal Coach Conducts Weekly Press Conference
Mike Montgomery discusses men's basketball season to date.
January 26, 1999
At his weekly press conference, Stanford men's basketball coach Mike Montgomery discussed the third-ranked Cardinal's season to date. Stanford improved to 17-2 overall, and 7-0 in the Pac-10, with a 94-45 win at home against Washington State Thursday and a 67-60 win against Washington Saturday, and now has a two-game lead in the Pac-10 race. The Cardinal is at Arizona Thursday and at Arizona State Friday.
Q: How would you compare the roles of Stanford and Arizona's point guards, Arthur Lee and Jason Terry?
(I think Terry has been more of a scorer for them in the past). He's kind of carried that role still, and still does that. He has quite a bit of freedom, and they run motion a lot, so that does get him shots. And the fact that they have three freshman, with just two seniors, I think he's called upon more to put some numbers up, and they look to him to do that. Where Art, I think, has a little more responsibility to the others, in making sure to keep them involved.
Q: How is your team handling being a target of everyone in the conference?
I think we've kind of gotten over that. I think we're just trying to play basketball games. One thing we are certainly seeing it in is good crowds, people getting up for us and coming out, playing good basketball. I think that's probably the way it should be. But as far as anything beyond that, we're just trying to win as many games as we can, and hopefully taking 'em one game at a time, understanding that that game is the most important game. Once we got over the initial deal with a lot of the hoop-de-la and pageantry, we've kind of settled down and there's probably a little more involvement with the external stuff, but basically it's still about basketball.
Q: With all the turnover on Arizona's roster this year, can you look at last year's team to help you prepare for this game?
Yes and no. They're doing a little more set stuff to get 'em into motion. They're still trying to take you at point of attack. They've actually changed their style, which Lute (Olson, Arizona's Coach) has always been good at recognizing: what they need to do, their strengths. And they are a little more inside-oriented, actually quite a bit more inside-oriented. Other than (Jason) Terry, with (center A.J.) Bramlett and (power forward Michael) Wright - Wright is probably the best freshman in the league. He's a load. And then Bramlett has improved consistently at 6-11. So they go to those guys, hard. So that's a little bit of a switch from where they have been. But you can look, because they do try to beat you off the dribble point-of-attack; they still have that part of it in their motion; they still play good defense. If there are errors, it's just the fact that you don't have seniors, maybe, and now you have freshmen, and those kind of things happen to all of us.
Q: Of all the qualities with your team, what are one or two things that really stand out?I think we have pretty good mental toughness. They are not a group that gets easily rattled; they're not a group that gives in very much. We've certainly played against some good teams in some tough situations and certainly some people have made some runs on us, but it has not devastated us. We typically have kind of righted ourselves and come back and found a way at least to compete or make a play. And I think the other thing that stands out is they really, truly are unselfish. Because they like one another as a group, because they respect one another, I don't think there's too much thought process about who's getting what. I think it's about trying to find the people that can win for 'em. And those two things, above all, I think are what have allowed us to have some success.
Q: Could you talk about how David Moseley has taken on the sixth-man role?
Well, with the injuries, it's a little bit different than it was. It's not like, "well, let's do this this time, and let's do this other thing the next time." When we come off the bench at the two-three (shooting guard and small forward), Dave comes in and plays those two positions as back-up. We still haven't gotten (injured point guard Mike) McDonald back to the point where we could move Art (Lee) to the two and Kris (Weems) to the three. So we're really looking at Dave with significant minutes at the two-three. And he's responded to that. He's going to come in and shoot; you know that. And it goes down, and he comes through in the unlikeliest of times. And he does provide some energy for you because he is fairly active. He'll go get a rebound or run down a ball and do some of those things. Thank goodness we have him, because it's been vital for us coming off the bench.
Q: People have always said you have to go through Los Angeles to win the Pac-10 title. Since you've already won there, are you looking at this trip as a prime opportunity to take control of your own destiny?
Well, you're in charge of your own destiny whether it be here or Arizona State or wherever. Nothing's going to be critical yet, in the conference for anybody I don't think, but you have just got to keep plugging along. I think the thought process has always been that a loss at home is always kind of a double-edged deal, or a double-dip, because then another win that you would have had on the road kind of gets negated. The fact that they'll (UCLA) come back here means that they can right that. Any time that a team sustains a loss, and you're playing them, like I said it's a double-dip. It's important. I think it's important to both of us, for probably the same reasons and maybe for different reasons. It's not going to be a deal-breaker, or -maker one way or the other.
Q: Mike McDonald didn't play against Washington. Was he sore or was it due to how the game went, and what's his status going to be for this weekend?
Well, he's sick. Trying to get Mike on the floor's been a little bit of a project. I gotta get him time. I thought that the situation just didn't call for it on Saturday. I'm not certain what he'll do; I'm not certain what he could do defensively in tough situations yet, because he simply hasn't done it. We couldn't afford a swing in a game like that, so Art was needed to be in there. We got Tony (Giovacchini) in. I had intended to maybe use him (McDonald) in the first half, the second time I rested Art, but it just didn't get to that.
Q: What do you see in Arizona's Michael Wright that is so impressive?
Well, he's been in double-figure rebounds the last five games - that impresses me. He's big, strong, very athletic and he gets to the glass. I mean he goes. We knew he was good. Coming off this summer in USA play, somebody had commented to me, "Hey, this Wright kid that's going to Arizona is going to cause you problems. He's good." And he has been good. Of course, he's getting a great opportunity with other good players, and that's a good situation to be in. Other freshmen, you know, are not getting maybe the same opportunity. You take a couple kids at UCLA, and he and maybe some other guys at Arizona - that's a pretty good group of freshmen.
Q: What do you mean by Art Lee's having more responsibilities to get others going, in light of how he's taken over games?
Well, I think you have to take advantage of your personnel. If you've got a guy who can go get 40 every night, then others figure out, OK my role is to go rebound, or my role is to defend. But if you're trying to keep everybody involved, then you have to have everybody involved, in our case, to be successful, then the point guard's responsibility is to make sure that we're doing that. That we're getting them the ball in opportune times, that we're taking advantage of match-up advantages for us, those kinds of things. If not, everybody else ends up standing, and we can't afford to do that, both from the standpoint of our personnel and from the standpoint of the way we run our offense. So it becomes important for Art that he recognizes maybe that a (Mark) Madsen has an advantage in a Washington game and we've got to go to him and take advantage of that. Otherwise everybody ends up standing, and that's what we've typically tried to do with our point guards (get everybody involved).
Q: Arthur does seem to have a tendency to make big plays at the end. Is that him, or are things a little more open for him at that stage?
Well, you tend to be a little less picky in certain situations where you know you just have to get one shot. And everybody has to be opportunistic. By that I mean, if people knew Art was going to try to shoot it every time down the floor, it would be more difficult for him. But if you wait for the right situation and move and move, you're all of a sudden going to get some pretty good looks. And good offense means passing up certain things and taking other things, because one's a little bit better than the other. That's just good decision-making. But Art has shown the ability, certainly, in a situation that requires a play to be made, the ability to do that. And he has, maybe, that uncanny ability to make plays when they need to be made. But again, it still has to be in a situation. I mean he just can't jump above somebody or go by everybody every time he wants; it has to be a good decision. But he has done it.
Q: In what areas have you seen the most improvement in your team this season and in what areas do you still need to improve?
Well, we need to improve in everything. We've gotten fairly consistent defensively. We're not the greatest, but we're solid. We're right now in the process of trying to go back and re-emphasize some things that we see slipping a little bit. Some teams have gotten we haven't had the advantage on the boards that we set out to have and we started to have early on in the year. Maybe that's a process or a result of our one, two, three (guards and small forward) not going hard enough, thinking that our four and five (power forward and center) are going to get the boards. So we'd like to get back and be a little more dominant on the boards. You never, ever execute like you'd like. There's always slippage. You always have to go back and re-establish your screen angles, re-establish your timing, those kinds of things. I think the guys have a pretty good idea of what we are, how we have to play to win. And I think they've bought into that pretty much and now it's just a matter of continually going back and shoring up areas that you have started to slip a little in.
Q: You mentioned that Arizona likes to work it inside more than in the past. Do you think that plays more into your strengths that maybe last year's team?
Well, Lute (Olson) is smart. He's a good coach. And he knows two of his better players happen to be at the blocks - (A.J.) Bramlett is a senior, and (Michael) Wright is a key player - are guys that he wants to get involved. Whereas last year maybe he had three perimeter guys that he had pretty much on equal footing, shooting the ball; (he) probably doesn't feel like he has that now. So he's just basically utilizing his strengths, like any of us would do. We can't afford to have I think it'd be significant for us to get in foul trouble. Just like the (Todd) MacCullough-Tim Young match-up was key, you'd like everybody in the game. If a guy gets in foul trouble, that hurts either one of us disproportionately. I mean it's certainly a place we feel pretty comfortable with, but obviously they do too.
Q: What have you learned, either about a player or the team as a whole, that you didn't know at the start of the season?
I really hadn't thought about that. I don't know that there's anything specific that is evident now, that wasn't evident, at least you didn't have an inkling of, to start the year. I can't answer that. Nothing drastic, no.
Q: After all the battles you've had with Arizona over the years, what's it feel like to come in here and be considered the favorite by many people?
Well, I think they probably ought to have their heads examined. They hadn't lost any games to my knowledge down there and they're still awfully good. They're ranked, what, ranked in the top something. I mean, any time you go on the road against a ranked team, I don't know that there are any favorites involved. We're not certainly looking at it that way. We're expecting as tough a ballgame as we've had. We understand that it will be important for both of us, and we know the crowd tends to get a little bit involved. So we're certainly not viewing it as us being the favorite.
Q: With all these expectations, and like that last question, you finding yourself the favorite, do you feel you have to wage a war of words with the other coaches in the Pac-10 in addition to playing on the floor, as far as trying to psych you guys out, say you will go undefeated in conference, and stuff like that?
Depends on how much attention you pay to it. I don't pay much attention, frankly. You kind of look at that stuff and you kind of see it for what it is, and you just push on. I mean, regardless of what's said one way or another, I don't think there's a team, no matter how bad we've been at any point in time, I don't think we've gone into a game expecting to lose any more than you go into a game expecting to win. You can talk about what's real; you talk about what they have to do, what we have to do, what our goals are, what we have to do to achieve those goals, and that's pretty much what it's about.
Q: Obviously Arizona has had really good teams over the years, but is there anything else that makes McKale such a difficult place to play?
Well, I think that it's the only show in town. I think the kids there go there to play basketball games, to win basketball games. I think that's the expectation there, of everyone involved. And they know there's going to be 14 thousand people every night. And I think that that crowd is a crowd that says, "hey, we win here. You win. This's what we do." And that's what they expect. So there's a history, tradition of good, solid basketball there, and I think that really helps them. I think the crowd has been great. They'll get on a call or a team immediately, in unison. So it's been a tough place to play.
Q: Are you concerned about free throws this year, and is there anything you can do about that this year, aside from just continuing to practice them?
I think you could be careful with who you have in late, maybe. Whose hands the ball's in. One of the things that has happened, and I don't know that it will cease, is that people are willing to give up their post people to just foul. So you run good stuff, you get the ball exactly where you want it, you get ready to make a great play, or finish a play, and then, bang, you don't get a chance to do that. So you've already run pretty good stuff, and then you get to take it out of bounds for the first six times. Then, if you are shooting foul shots and if they're not your best foul shooters and you come away with one or none, it wears on you. Because you're running good stuff, you're doing everything you want to do and you're not getting rewarded. So you look up and feel like you're winning a game in every way, but you're behind. And that wears on you a little bit mentally. And then, like I said, sometimes people are saying, hey I don't care. Push and we'll just get another guy in there when we get in foul trouble. So you've got four guys, 20 fouls, and it makes it difficult for you. Our guys are not bad foul shooters. Some of it, if you dwell on it, then it becomes maybe something everybody wants to talk about it. We've got good shooters. We've just got to make sure that if we get in a late game situation, our best foul shooters have the ball in their hands, but that goes without saying.