PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 10, 2021

Jerod Haase

Stanford Cardinal

Postgame Press Conference

California - 76, Stanford - 58

Q. I know you're a forward looking guy, what, again, before looking at the tape, will you take from this year and try to use about and maybe your journey forward take as a lesson for coaching going forward?

JEROD HAASE: Yeah, it's a great question. I have probably a variety of things, it's probably not a question I can be overly coherent with because I think there's going to be a lot of reflection back on this year. I do know for a fact there's going to be some real positive things that I can take away from my performance and I also know there's some things that I need to do better and things I can grow from as a coach and we can grow from as a program. I do think, as I try and answer that in 10 seconds right now would be a disservice, because there will be a lot of reflection and thinking back of this year and understanding what it's going to take to move this program forward to take it to the next major step. I do think we're continuing to take steps as a program in a forward direction, it's just not as fast as I want it to be. I do think there's some exciting times ahead, but we do need to learn from this year and grow from it.

Q. We were just talking with Oscar, obviously, and you've said a number of times what you think of him as not just a basketball player but really a model of what you would want in a student-athlete. What can you say right now to kind of sum up his impact on you and on this program?

JEROD HAASE: Yeah, it's a great question. It's an answer that's hard to put into words. Obviously I think he just got the award for Scholar Athlete of the Year in the PAC-12, which is certainly well deserved. What he's done in the classroom, what he's done in the Stanford community, what he's meant for this team is very profound. The way he handles his business is something that I talk to my children about so they can learn from what the best does. The way he presents himself to anybody on campus or anybody in the program, I mean, we just passed an official that said it's been an honor to officiate him and I don't know that officials say that a whole lot when they see a player. So I've used the phrase gold standard and I do believe he's the gold standard for what any scholar athlete would want to be. And on a personal level, he means the world to me.

Q. On that list of things of moving forward to try to improve, he referenced toward the end of his time talking with us that it was tough at times this season to get everyone kind of swimming the same direction and you talked about the cohesion in recent weeks as well. What can you kind of share about maybe the frustrations of a coach when that's a problem in the final weeks of a season and what you can maybe share about that?

JEROD HAASE: You know, since I've been at Stanford, I've obviously known this for a long time, but I do believe stress has to do with everything, academic stress, social stress, academic stress, all those stresses add up. I do think this is a year where we had challenges, had a number of stresses, and I think it was challenging for the team in a lot of different ways. My job is to make sure that there's a game plan, that there's a plan in place, and that we execute that plan.

There were a number of, especially in this -- well, actually, throughout the entire year -- injuries, challenges, disruptions to our roster. I think we're well in the 30s in terms of the original starting five from the season in terms of games they missed individually. And with that, every time there's a new input, somebody new in the starting lineup, somebody adjusting their roles, every role changes, and those seemed to be changing really on a daily basis.

Before we came here, two days before we came here, I inserted Max in the starting lineup and five minutes later he got hurt in practice. So every day we continued to redefine roles for individuals and that's challenging. And obviously I didn't do a good enough job as a coach defining that properly and getting them to execute that. And it's hard on the players. It's hard on the players to go from starting to on the bench to need to be a scorer and trying to become a facilitator and those roles continue to change and evolve.

And while we were trying to make the best plans possible, every day for practice and every game, the execution of those plans didn't always happen and that falls on my shoulders.

Q. You had an absurd level of adversity, but you also have a lot of really good, core young players who are going to be back. Is there a philosophy that (No microphone.) that will pay dividends down the road in terms of making guys mentally stronger when things aren't so tough?

JEROD HAASE: Yeah, I missed about two-thirds of your question, but I think I got enough of it. I'll answer it the best I can.

Adversity is part of life. Adversity is going to be part of every season. Adversity is going to be part of every practice and every game. The ability to deal with that and handle it and move on is going to be very important. To say that I'm excited about the core of the team coming back would be an understatement, a huge understatement. I think we have character, I think we have talent, I think we have toughness, and I'm really anxious to have an off-season with them. I'm excited to have a summer with the freshmen coming in. I'm excited to build this program. I'm hurting right now in a lot of ways and it's been a hard year, but I can say emphatically that we're going to get this done here and it's going to take a lot of energy and a lot of planning and a lot of work.

But I say that because I do believe in what we're doing as a program. I believe we're growing as a program and I have a great deal of confidence in our group as they return, and that includes the freshmen coming in. So while I may not use excitement right this second, I can promise you that I am excited about the future of the program.

Q. The team's definitely had a challenging end in these past couple seasons and it feels like things have trailed off a little bit. How do you finish stronger and be ready for sort of post-season level going forward and hopefully returning to Maples next year and presumably bringing back some fans and sort of strumming up that support again in the community, what are you most looking forward to for the season ahead?

JEROD HAASE: A chance to get with our players. This summer, not having our guys here proved really challenging. There was so many programs around the country that did have access to them and that's just kind of the hand we were dealt. And then in the fall when the guys came back not being able to be in the gym and challenges there were real and I think we weren't able to lay the foundation for this team that I wanted to lay.

Having said that, we I think really forged ahead when we were able to get in the gym and practice. Having said that, I'm looking forward to the summer. I'm looking forward to getting the guys in a gym, I'm looking forward to working and I'm looking forward to growing the program. I have confidence in the guys that are going to be in the program and I have confidence in myself, but the bottom line is it's going to take work and it's going to take a lot of work and I'm willing and they're willing to do it and I can say that wholeheartedly.