Dec 31 2008
Montgomery ready for Pac-10 play
Mike Montgomery may be hard on his team, but after going 11-2 in non-conference play and being ranked in the top 20 in Sagarin’s and RPI, even he has become more optimistic about the Bears’ chances for an NCAA Tournament bid. Ok, well he didn’t say as much at his weekly press conference, but he intimated some confidence.
The Bears haven’t won 11 games in non-conference play since the 1946-’47 season and that was before the late great Pete Newell got his hands on the team. In other words, what we’ve just witnessed is Cal Bears history. Not bad for your first season as the head man.
The Bears will face two tough teams this week; Arizona and Arizona State. If Cal can beat each of them, we could be embarking on a very special season. This is what Montgomery had to say about it:
On opening Pac-10 play:
You could feel the difference. You know the significance of home games, road games. One game could make a lot of difference to you. You just have to take advantage of the opportunities, if they present themselves. Mostly, you have to make them present themselves. You can feel the energy level, now it really means something if you lose. You’re starting off with two teams that are top-half teams, two ranked teams.
On his prediction for Cal in Pac-10 play:
There’s a bunch of people, probably, that would have the same aspirations or thought processes of where we could finish that are similar, maybe have some issues, but have done well enough or conceivably could do well enough to move up in the league. I think there are a lot of people that have to be in the same category. With as much talent that was lost in the league last year, including here, you don’t know where it’s going to shake out. The teams that have the big time talent coming back from last year like Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA - they have probably a little bit more confidence. But I don’t think they’re sitting there thinking that right now. I don’t think there’s anybody that’s above reproach in the league right now. But what happens in an 18-game league, you don’t have to be, you just have to be above reproach on the night that you play and it ultimately shapes itself out.
On Cal’s juniors:
I think we’ve improved. I think the things that we’re doing are sound. I think they understand how they’re sound and how they fit into winning. We haven’t faced a lot of adversity yet, and we’ll have to see what happens when we do, how they react to it. It’s a solid group of kids, the core, those juniors; it’s a solid group of players. We’d like to have some opportunities, but they know what we’re trying to do. I think they understand. They’re trying to play defense the right way. They make mistakes, but now they know it. At least they know it’s a mistake and why it’s a mistake. We’re trying to create the right kind of habits and it just doesn’t happen overnight.
On Cal’s zone offense:
We’re working on it. It’s good and bad because now your preparation for these two Arizona teams are sort of the same. You have to work on your zone stuff, so any advantage that Arizona State might have had in the past with the one-day prep for somebody coming in, you’re pretty much going to work on zone all week. Arizona State’s way more man-to-man oriented matchup type. They’re pretty much just switching man. Arizona, because of depth issues in their mind, they’ve gone to a zone and have had some success with it. They’re trapping some out of a 1-2-2, kind of a random trap deal. They just don’t feel like they have a lot of depth, I think, so they’re trying to protect themselves.
