Stanford University's Official Athletic Site - Men's Basketball

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Head Coach Mike Montgomery

Jimmy Farnum (Denver, CO)
Coach, congrats on a great trip through Oregon. You pulled out not justvictories, but impressive victories in two very tough places to play. Myquestion is: what are your thoughts on the 35-second shot clock? Do youfeel the college game should go to the 24-second clock like the NBA? Whatare the reasons for difference?

Coach Montgomery: No -- 24-second clock, absolutely not. The pro game is all aboutone-on-one, point of attack, athletes, not much team aspect to it. The35-second clock I think is a compromise between the orignal 45-second clockconcept and what would be the 24-second clock. It does give you enough timeto strategize and zone and still make passes. It seems to have not beenmuch of a factor in taking too much away from a team's ability to controltempo. So I think it's a pretty good deal right now.

Michael Clarke (Stanford, CA)
I'm curious about some aspects of the officiating and your ability as acoach to contest it. I enjoy seeing you work the refs when they make a badcall, and I think it has a positive effect on their later calls in thegame. In the ASU game you picked up a technical very early, and had to toneit down; in the Arizona game you didn't seem to be contesting too manyfouls, even when it seemed there were some funny calls going on under thebasket on both ends. Does the NCAA issue penalties if you get too manytechnicals in a short span of games, or is the worst that can happen thatyou get two in a single game and get ejected? Are there restrictions onwhat you can say about officials or their calls after the game? Have youever injured your foot by kicking the scorer's table?

Coach Montgomery: Officials miss a lot of calls. It doesn't do you a whole lot of goodbecause the lines of communication in our league are not very good as faras being able to talk to officials. Technicals are designed to keep a coachfrom being too demonstrative, which then affects the crowd and so forth.No, you can't say anything about it. No, there are not really anysanctions that exist. It's something that you hope you're getting the kidstreated fairly in terms of their ability to compete and have an opportunityto win, that they don't change the game. The hardest part is you just needto live with officials' calls. It's sometimes easier than others, but it issomething that exists. Generally speaking you've just got to realize thatthat's the way it is and try to coach your team.

John Gaddie (Chico, CA)
First congratulations and thank you for bringing Stanford basketball intothe upper ranks of college basketball. Coach, I have seen a transitionfrom this year's team to last year's in that they are more aggressive inrunning and pushing the ball up the court, in the future is this going tobe your philosphy to become a faster team instead of a big, physical team?

Coach Montgomery: We're trying to run. If I can recruit faster players and we can get theball off the boards cleanly, we will continue to try to run. I thinkthere's a real place for trying to get it down and get shots before thedefense sets, but our objective in our break is to get better shots than wewould get in half-court. If you're not getting better shots, you shouldn'ttake it. We're trying to work on it, and we will continue to try to recruitthe most athletic players that we can.

Danielle Carmichael (San Jose, CA)
In your opinion what do you think it takes to play college basketball todayand how much do you think it differs from the past?

Coach Montgomery: I think there's been a trend toward athleticism. I think that much ofcollege basketball is dependent on speed and quickness, and your ability tomove quickly. There's no question that that has changed the recruiting, andwhat you have to do. Basketball is still a skill game, but if you don'thave enough athleticism, or size or speed or quickness, sometimesunfortunately all the skill in the world is not going to get it done foryou.

Eric Ferris (Madison, WI)
I have both a comment and a question. First, I was just reading yourpostings from December and came across your comment about suggestions ofpeople to play in the midwest. Well, I know that you are being polite byasking, as I can appreciate the amount of free advice that you get on aregular basis, but I had to bring up the University of Wisconsin. Over thepast years I have heard the Badger coaches lament that they cannot get someof the elite schools to play home and home with them. As an individual whoappreciates the game of basketball and outstanding coaching, it would be apleasure to watch your team compete against Coach Bennett's. Now for thequestion. In your successful career, what are a few of your most treasuredmemories (and why)?

Coach Montgomery: We have actually played at Wisconsin. We played in the NIT there the yearthat we won the NIT, and won that game, which was a real fun game becausethe atmosphere was so good and it was the first opportunity to winsomething in the postseason. Then we had a home-and-home with Wisconsin(1993-94 & 1994-95). I think Dick Bennett is a very good coach. I thinkprobably the things you remember most are when you've won big games againstquality opponents that allow you to advance in the tournament. I think youtend to remember those most of all.

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