NIT SEASON TIP-OFF

November 27, 2002

Justin Davis

Rob Little

Mike Montgomery

COACH MONTGOMERY: I brought our free throw shooters with us. Well, obviously, we're very pleased, and I'm sure we've surprised people thus far. The kids have just shown a lot of poise, and, you know, they really hung in there together. We've not allowed anybody to have any real big runs on us when we've needed big baskets, we've gotten big baskets. Rob Little and Justin went to the line late, hit four huge free throws. So the zone is really helping us. We tried to play -- maybe missed, man-to-man zone. We got a little confused but I thought we maybe got Florida out of their rhythm a little bit. You know, you're going to give up shots obviously from deep. They have a great shooting team and they have a very good scheme in terms of attacking the zone, but if the 3s all go in, we're probably not sitting here with a win. But it's 8-for-28, and that allows us -- and it took off the board a little bitty thought because they had to spread court a little bit to get the shooters. But I think the thing that mainly it did is it took them out of the press. We were concerned about the press, and we worked pretty hard on the press, trying to make them understand what the run-and-jump is because we had not seen that; we only turned it over ten times and I thought that was huge and we didn't turn it over for breakaways, and I thought that was really a big deal. I'm a little surprised with the last couple of wins with Xavier and Kansas, to be honest with you, but these kids have shown a lot of poise. So, who knows. We need to improve offensively, shot selection, execution. But it's an awfully good win for us to come in here, first game away from home, very good Florida team, young basketball team, and get this win.

COACH MONTGOMERY: I never said rebuild. I just thought we were awful young and I thought with our schedule the way it was, you know, that some of the games we had early we might not be quite ready for it just in terms of experience. I put freshmen in, and really I don't think they really know what they are doing. It's just stuff that we are not used to and that kind of thing. Boston will play in the NCAA tournament. Xavier will play in the NCAA tournament. Florida will play in the NCAA tournament. We've played three of our first four games against teams that will be in the tournament. For us, it's a little bit -- it's very pleasing to be as far as we are. This group really likes each other. They play well together. They are unselfish. It's a great team effort.

JUSTIN DAVIS: I wouldn't say a responsibility, but for the front line but for the whole team. We had to work together. The guards can do their job and we can do ours, it makes a whole lot of difference. I think today everyone stepped up. But I still think the front line has a lot to improve and a lot to work on to get better.

JUSTIN DAVIS: I can see that, but probably more than anything, we were tired. Florida, they run the court hard. It was an up-and-down game. And we're big guys. For us to keep up with them, a well-conditioned team, it's hard.

JUSTIN DAVIS: I think we are better but we have a lot to work on.

COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, I think Kansas is awfully strong. You know, again, you're looking at a North Carolina team that's relying very heavily on three freshmen that are going to have to play against a very veteran team that knows how to play. We have firsthand knowledge of that having played them the last game of last year. Hinrich is just an exceptional pointguard. Collison was, of course, on the World Championship team we had that I helped coach; he's exceptional. They are a very, very good team. I would be surprised if North Carolina could win that game. Certainly they are going to know each other's stuff because they run the same early offense sets, all of that stuff they run. But North Carolina has got a tough test with Kansas. They are a very, very good. They have to be a National Championship contender.

COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, we didn't get the ball into offense very well. We had good shots early, to be honest with you, but their physical play, they were very physical. They played a whole lot harder than we did and we got the ball early in some places offensively and we could not convert. The next thing you know, we are down a bunch. I was complimented on my time-out policy a lot of times by people around the country. We just have to be, if they win because obviously this -- I would not count North Carolina out because we are sitting here and people would not have given us much chance, but if they win, it's going to be an extreme test for us early.

JUSTIN DAVIS: Well, that was a team -- actually I didn't even realize that we have a chance to see Florida, but that's a team that we have not played, and just the way they play, they play hard, and I really wanted to get a chance to go against their big guys. So I got my wish.

COACH MONTGOMERY: Not really. I mean, you know, if somebody really wants to sit down and talk, I think I could probably throw some stuff at you that's pretty good, but I don't really worry about that. It's a little bit of what we face on the West Coast, it's a little bit of what we face at Stanford. It's just that we really try to go about and do our job. That's really been my thing always. My thing is, if I do my job that things will take care of themselves. I think people that know think we do a pretty good job out there, and these kids really work hard, they are fun to work with every day. It's fun to go to practice every day.

COACH MONTGOMERY: About not winning a National Championship?

COACH MONTGOMERY: That's the Barry Bonds thing a little bit. We get a lot of that. It's pretty tough to win a National Championship. You know, there's just a couple of coaches in the West, or only a couple of schools in the West that have really done that. I would never base my career or anything on that particular thing. Stanford's unique in some ways that most people don't really realize, and I think the job that we've done kind of speaks for itself. Getting to the Finals that year, we had two No. 1 ranked teams, we were seeded No. 1, we've had really good basketball, and that's pretty satisfying for me.

ROB LITTLE: It's really helped my confidence and the confidence of the team. I mean, I feel like we had no pressure on us for the Xavier game and the Florida game and I feel like we came out really poised and really, two good wins. I feel like we have a lot of confidence going into the next game, whoever it is, Kansas or North Carolina.

JUSTIN DAVIS: I think it will be the same pressure. There's going to be pressure on us as a team that we want to play hard, play together, and just do our best. But we really don't get too focused into outsiders. The team is the only people out there with us and we can't get to concerned with what everybody else thinks, what they say.

JUSTIN DAVIS: It feels great. MSG, there's no place like it. You can play anywhere in the world, but once you step into MSG, it's a whole different feeling. For me to come here and play well, it's just a feeling I can't describe right now.

JUSTIN DAVIS: It's a great feeling when you step out. You can smell the beer. It's a place like no other, I'll tell you that. Like a frat house or something.