May 25, 2004
Stanford Press Conference
Athletic Director Ted Leland
"There's probably not a lot of mystery about who we are introducing today, but that doesn't eliminate the sense of anticipation and great excitement we have about our announcement. We have a tough act to follow, but we are convinced we found the right person."
"You can't imagine how many great candidates have applied. Because of the stature of the program, there has been incredible interest in the position and we thank all of them for their enthusiasm."
"We made a decision very quickly. Trent (Johnson) was the public frontrunner because of his pedigree at Utah, Rice, Washington, Nevada and here. He had an incredible amount of support internally from Stanford. If anybody questions whether we made the right decision, just spend five minutes with this man. He is an amazing educator, a great basketball coach and will be a great role model for our athletes."
Stanford Head Basketball Trent Johnson
"Obviously, I am overwhelmed. It is evident that in my coaching career I have had the opportunity to be around some great coaches and athletes. I am very fortunate to be in this position."
"Stanford University speaks volumes about college athletics, with student-athletes that play at a high level and win at a high level."
"One of my goals is to every day and every second to try to build and make this team better so we can be in a position to be the last team standing at the end of the year. Am I honored to be replacing him (Mike Montgomery), yes I am, but Coach Montgomery will not be replaced."
"I have my own personality and way of doing things and I am going to try to be myself every step of the way. My nature is to be aggressive from start to finish, offensively and defensively."
"There will be no changes on this staff. I couldn't be in a better situation then to inherit guys like Eric (Reveno), Tony (Fuller) and Russell (Turner)."
On Recruiting
"Eric, Tony and Russell have done a great job already. There have been several kids on campus. Basically I need to come in and be myself and not screw this thing up. Stanford is by no way a hard sell. We ask our athletes to be the best, so we want them to be honor roll students. This place is so special because we have kids that compete at a high level in the classroom and at a high level on the athletic field."