West Regional Final Notebook
Courtesy: Stanford Athletics
Release: 03/23/2001
March 23, 2001
ANAHEIM, Calif. - The Collins twins, who give Stanford one of college basketball's best inside games, are nearing the end of their playing time together - unless they wind up on the same NBA team someday.
Jason, a 7-foot junior, and Jarron, a 6-11 senior, decided long ago they would attend the same college after playing at Harvard Westlake High School in Southern California.
"At the beginning of the recruiting process, our grandmother told us there was strength in numbers," Jarron said Friday. "We were going to go as a package, we were going to go together no matter what."
Stanford won the recruiting battle in 1997.
"It's special playing with your brother," said Jason, who took a medical redshirt year in 1997-98 for a knee injury.
The brothers played against each other for the first time last year in a summer-league game.
"There was a lot of trash talking, it was fun," Jason said. "It's a team game. His team won, so he got the best of me."
Jarron said the brothers know each other's whereabouts on and off the court. He likened their on-court posture to that of Utah Jazz stars Karl Malone and John Stockton.
"We've played together so long, we have a special chemistry between us," Jarron said.
TERRAPINS HAVE COME A LONG WAY: Maryland looked like anything but an NCAA tournament team, much less a team that would advance to the final eight, after losing to visiting Florida State 74-71 on Feb. 14.
It was the Terrapins' fifth loss in six games, dropping them to 15-9. They've since won nine of 10, including three straight in the West Regional.
"The thing the Florida State game made us realize is we were going to have to take care of things ourselves," said Maryland coach Gary Williams. "We had to play well, we had no choice. The players made up their minds they were going to play as hard as we could, and here we are."
The Terps are playing in the final eight for the first time since 1975.
SHOOTER EXTRAORDINAIRE: Stanford's Ryan Mendez has the reputation as one of college basketball's best pure shooters, and his 94.8-percent effort from the foul line leads the country.
It's no accident - he practices shooting by the hour.
"I always shoot with a rebounder, I don't go out there and mess around," he said.
Last summer, Mendez said he tried to make 150 3-point shots a day at least four days a week.
"That's mixed in with shooting free throws," he said.
As a senior this season, Mendez has made 46 of 118 3-point shots (39 percent) and 92 of 97 free throws including a Pac-10 record 49 straight at one stage.
"The one I missed to end the streak (against Arizona State), that felt the best that whole game," he said. "It didn't go in. Things do happen."
A REPEAT OF HISTORY: Maryland is trying to follow the same route Utah took three years ago to the Final Four.
The Terps can only hope it continues.
The Utes, seeded third then in the West, won two games in Boise and another pair at the Anaheim Arena, beating top-seeded Arizona for the regional title.
The Terps, seeded third this year, won twice in Boise and topped Georgetown on Thursday night to reach the regional final against Stanford, another No. 1 seed.
Utah wound up losing to Kentucky in the national championship game, so Maryland would like a slightly different ending.
The Terps haven't progressed this far in the NCAA tournament since 1975.
"It's a great feeling, hopefully we'll play our game and be in the Final Four," said Lonny Baxter, who had 26 points and 14 rebounds in the Georgetown game.
"For us to get that monkey off our back, get past the sweet 16, I can't say enough about our players and coaches," said Juan Dixon, Maryland's leading scorer.
MONTGOMERY HAPPY HE'S NOT PLAYING: Stanford has become one of college basketball's elite programs under Mike Montgomery, coach of the Cardinal since 1986.
Now 54, he played for Long Beach State in the late 1960s.
When asked how he would coach himself, Montgomery replied: "I guarantee if I were playing, we wouldn't be here. I was more competitive than my skills. I probably didn't have all the things necessary to get the job done. I didn't know that, though. I was young."
INTENSITY PERSONIFIED: Maryland coach Gary Williams is known as a pretty intense person.
"I always marvel watching on television that he hasn't exploded," said Stanford coach Mike Montgomery.
Williams chuckled when informed of Montgomery's observation.
"I've seen Mike go after it a little bit," he said. "Some guys keep it inside, they have operations on their stomachs."
Williams made it clear he's not one of those people.
The current Maryland team is the first coached by Williams to reach the final eight, but Montgomery scoffed at the notion that he wasn't a top-flight coach because of that.
"Gary's respected by the people that know, that's what important," he said.
By JOHN NADEL
AP Sports Writer