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PACIFIC-12 CONFERENCE MEDIA DAYOctober 28, 2011Jorge GutierrezMike MontgomeryLOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA DAVE HIRSCH: We have California coach Mike Montgomery, and senior guard Jorge Gutierrez. COACH MONTGOMERY: It's good to see everybody. In lieu of recent circumstances, it's good to be seen. I want, obviously, the focus to be on our basketball team, but it's probably important to explain what's gone on here in the last month relative to me, so we don't have any questions, speculation. About a month ago I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, high-grade bladder cancer. And through a series of extremely fortuitous events, we were able to get in, get the little polyp, tumor, whatever you want to call it, get it out and everything since that time has been all clear, all clear, all clear. So essentially from having heard that a month ago and the obvious uncertainty of what could be your next thing that you have to go through and deal with, essentially I went from having high-grade bladder cancer a month ago to being totally cancer free at this juncture. So I've been in the office this week and planning practices, and have watched the last couple of practices, and we'll be back on the floor full time starting Monday, much to the players' chagrin. So that's good news. Our basketball team, we've got a chance. A year ago at this time we had so many question marks that it was hard to even know where to start, but I thought this group of kids really overachieved last year and got to the point where we were competitive in probably a game or two away from the NCAA Tournament. Played the better teams in our conference straight up and tough. So we're encouraged. We now don't have those same question marks where we had question marks before, we have answers. We've got strong players at least at four of the positions that we're pretty sure can play at a high level. We've got some young players that should be able to fill in those other spots. We've got great senior leadership in Harper Kamp and Jorge Gutierrez. Kids that are proven winners, know how to play, tough, smart. They've set a great example for our young players. We've got some sophomores, Allen Crabbe was Freshman of the Year last year, and he's no longer a freshman. He's much more confident. We know what Allen can do. Brandon Smith ran our club very well last year. We had Justin Cobbs transfer from Minnesota. He can play the one or two. Brandon is no longer a freshman, but sometimes we have to check. He's made great progress, and had great upside. We've got some good young people as well. I guess if I had one concern, it would be we're maybe short one or two players from a depth perspective in the event something bad would happen. I like our basketball team. We had a chance to go to Europe, and I think that really helped them get to know each other better. It's a hard-working group with good work ethic, reasonable to good talent, that I think we have a chance to be pretty competitive. We're excited about the league. I think the league's going to get better as we go along. We've got some good coaches that have had great success, and are now starting to establish themselves in their programs. I will say this as we open it up for questions, it's a pleasure that any coach in our conference or any coach in the country to coach a young man like Jorge who comes to play every day, gives you what he has. Just one of the toughest kids I've ever coached. One of the questions asked earlier was who is your favorite player? I've got a bunch of them, and generally for the same reasons, Jorge would be on that list. So, at any rate, any questions that you'd like to ask Jorge or myself? Q. You guys weren't picked in the polls to win the Pac-12. With the great play of Gutierrez, and you have Allen Crabbe and Kamp, do you feel sleighted at all? And second part of the question is, what are you going to have to do to actually win the Pac-12? COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, I think it would be smart to always have a little bit of a chip on your shoulder. We certainly don't feel slighted. We were hanging by the skin of our teeth last year in a lot of situations. We finished fourth, which I felt like we did overachieve. If you look at the talent of some of these other schools, Arizona who did win the league last year lost one player, granted he was significant, but they really have everybody back. UCLA, you walk through the airport, and they scare the heck out of you. They're huge. You've got to think that UCLA's going to be awfully good. I like our basketball team. We're not too worried about what anybody else thinks about us. I think we've got to stay healthy. We've got to develop some depth, and we've got to have our key people perform, which I don't think is unusual that anybody would say anything differently. For me, the idea of being competitive and having an opportunity to compete for a championship is all you really can ask, and I think we're in that position. Q. What will your physical limitations be, if any, as you go forward for this season? COACH MONTGOMERY: None, absolutely none. It's just a matter of getting the strength back. I'm moving along smartly. Lost a little weight, which I don't think I'd recommend it as a way to diet, necessarily. But, no, I've got no limitations. It's just a matter of getting your strength back and being a hundred percent. I'll probably watch myself a little bit. I was in the office six hours yesterday and sat and watched the whole practice. No, I have no limitations. Q. What kind of player is Justin Cobbs, and what role do you see him playing as you get started? COACH MONTGOMERY: Justin's good. He's just a little inconsistent. I think like a lot of young players, of which we've got two or three, he tends to lose focus. When he loses focus, he makes mistakes that would bother us. When he's focused and playing like he can, he's very good. He's strong, he's fast, he's explosive. For us, he can play two positions, which is critical. He can play the point and he can play the off, which means we can play Jorge at the off, primarily, and move him even over to the three if we need to to play a smaller lineup. So it's just a matter of Justin understanding, again, like several of our younger players, what's most important. What he needs to do on a consistent basis, and taking advantage of the skills that he does have. When he does do that, he's very good. But we've got to stay on top of it. Q. I just wondered if you could share how the cancer was detected? COACH MONTGOMERY: No, I think I've said enough about that. I'm not a doctor. They went in and did a cystoscope to look at a diverticulum that I had, and there was something in there that wasn't supposed to be in there. The only thing I'll say, and this is all I want to say about this whole thing is, look, I'm a hundred percent good to go now. I may continue to be a pain in your ass from now on. So the only thing is that, just so you know perspective-wise, he said, three months ago we wouldn't have found this, six months from now you'd be done. So the timing couldn't have been better. So if you've got an anchor of pain, get checked. Q. I just want to know what your emotions were from that time that you were diagnosed and told you had cancer to the time you were cancer free. I would imagine that was a pretty emotional month for you. COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, we didn't have a lot of parties around the house. It wasn't a real exciting time. I mean, it's scary. It's scary. Anybody that's been through it or had something, you go from being relatively on top of your game to being in charge of everything, to no longer being in charge. It could have gone the other way. But, again, I was extremely fortunate it went the way it did, so we're good to go. Probably adds a little perspective to your life. Q. Any comments on the rules reform package that was just passed in terms of access to kids in the summer and all those things? COACH MONTGOMERY: How do you know that I'd have a reaction to that? It kind of blows my mind to be honest with you. The fact that we're now going to be tweeting, texting, calling these kids any time anyplace, it's hard for me to really understand. I've always been relatively protective of kids and their privacy. I think kids need to have an opportunity to focus on some of the things that are important in their lives such as academics and family. I just don't know how this is going to work itself out. I can remember the whole evolution of all the things that have gone on in the last 30 years as to why we made decisions to protect kids' privacy, to protect kids and give them a chance to study and keep them away. It's so difficult now to keep kids level headed in terms of relative to where they are and what their expectations are, to turn 340 Division I coaches on them 24 hours a day, I'm not certain how this is going to work itself out. Q. What was the reaction of the team when you learned what was going on with Mike? JORGE GUTIERREZ: I think as Coach said, a different perspective of how we see Coach or how we see life overall. I feel like now we feel a little bit more connected, because before we couldn't really connect. We didn't really have much of a connection outside of basketball, but he opened up a little bit more, so I think that helped us to relate with him more. Q. So, Coach, will you do more texting, tweeting? Are you going to adjust to these new rules? COACH MONTGOMERY: You've got to. You've got to do what you've got to do. Coaching staffs are hiring people to do just that. That's all they do is text, tweet, whatever they do. That's not my idea of what a coach is, but if you have to do that, ultimately you've got to recruit players. So you're going to have to make adjustments like anything else to what people expect of you and what kids -- I mean, I'm still going to stay true to who I am and what I think. But you're going to have to make sure you keep up with the Joneses. I'm glad that this happened so now that Jorge knows I'm human now. That wasn't necessarily the way I would have chosen, but... (smiling). Q. Pretend he's not there. What's he like to play for? What's he like in practice? COACH MONTGOMERY: Remember what I told you, Jorge (laughing). JORGE GUTIERREZ: He's great, man. He's a great coach. I wouldn't ask for anybody else to play with. We missed him when he was gone, but we're excited to have him back soon. Q. Just outside, off the court, what have you learned from Coach Montgomery that you're going to take possibly to the next level? JORGE GUTIERREZ: He's a funny guy, I guess (smiling), but he's just a great person, man. I guess he knows how to take the best of me on and off the court. He makes me not just a better player, a better person, a better student. Q. You've been a joy to watch for three years. Where do you get your drive and competitiveness from? You never take a play off. Where do you get that from? JORGE GUTIERREZ: I'm just a competitive guy. I don't like to lose. I think every game matters. Like you said, every play matters. For a guy like me, winning is everything. That's what it is. Q. You coached Larry when he was younger. Can you talk about his intensity back then, or does it cool off, or is it still the same? COACH MONTGOMERY: Oh, we've got lots of stories about Krystko. He's one of my favorites. Larry was a guy out of little Shelby, Montana that nobody much knew about. It was kind of a local recruiting deal. But we felt like us he was a guy we had to have and we were fortunate enough to get him. We had four great years with Larry. He just got better and better. He's one of those guys that has to go on your all-time favorite list. It's about how bad he wanted it, what he wanted to do, the to be successful, the emotion he put into it. It's been great to watch him grow up. A great NBA career. Having an opportunity to coach in the NBA. We'd chuckle about some of our common experiences there. He did a great job as a head coach at Montana, and I think he'll do the same thing at Utah. He has a way with kids. He's very level-headed and has a way of explaining things that they get without being too heavy handed. And his experience, obviously, speaks for itself. So I'm excited to see Larry at Utah, and happy to have him in the league. Q. It seems like Harper Kamp will be one of the team's keys to success this year. He's battled knee surgery. Do you feel he'll last the whole season? COACH MONTGOMERY: We're going to do everything we can to see that that happens. I'd say the same thing about Jorge. We've got to keep those guys fresh and healthy. The problem is you can't afford to lose games by not having them on the floor, but at the same time you can't run them into the ground. I felt like last year just out of necessity we were forced to run some guys a little bit longer and harder than we would have liked. I thought we paid a price toward the end of the season. Guys were just beat up. So we've got to protect those two players. Harper, unfortunately, just has a knee that's not very -- not great. He puts an inordinate amount of time to prepare himself to come to practice every day to get ready to play, and he's willing to do that. So it's going to be important that that thing doesn't get sore, because if it gets sore, sometimes it takes a little while to get him back. At the same time, he's got to practice hard enough to get his timing and get a feel and a flow. So there will be sometimes when it hurts him. He tries to protect himself now, and he doesn't jump all the time, because jumping is something that potentially bothers him when he gets into the position he has to, and twisting coming off of a rebound. But there are going to be time when's he he's going to have to play at a hundred percent to be successful, so we'll keep a close eye on him. I think I've got maybe enough big guys that I can get him out of there a little bit more than I was able to last year. But at the same time, he and Jorge are two kid that's have to be in there, I think, for us to win. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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