Despite the tough loss to Arizona, Mike Montgomery was rather upbeat during the post-game press conference. His players were visibly upset with the outcome, but Monty saw some positives to take away from the game.
On his team's performance
"I'll take that (loss) and a commitment like that. I know wins and losses are the whole deal, but they came together as a team and played with a lot of heart. I can't complain about that. They feel bad and they should, but that tells me they are committed. Arizona just lost to Oregon State the other night so nobody is really invincible in the conference. I just want us to play good basketball. As long as they care and they play hard, I can't find fault with that."
On attacking Derrick Williams and Arizona big men while on offense
(Laughing) "A lot of good that did us. We knew Horne had four fouls, so we were trying to set up plays to get to him because we felt like he wouldn't play defense aggressively, but Williams had no fouls and played as aggressive as he wanted and that made it tough."
On team's improvement
"Slowly but surely. This is a great group of kids. Sure, you'd like to be able to jump higher or run faster, but as long as they commit to playing hard and do the extra things, then I don't have a problem with that."
After the jump women's basketball takes down ASU, Monty says more about Franklin's decision to transfer, and Nevada's Chris Ault and Colin Kaepernick talk about how the win over Cal was a turning point in their superb season.
Basketball
- The men's team barely lost to Arizona after holding a lead throughout much of the second half.
- Derrick Williams' record-setting 22 free throw attempts (he converted 16) were a critical factor in Arizona's win.
- Faraudo follows the game in his usual live thread.
- The women's team posted a solid victory over ASU. After the game Boyle said her team has begun to put everything together after some tough, competitive, "maul ball" in practice.
- Faraudo provides some insight into why Franklin may have decided to transfer. He apparently believes that he has NBA-level talent and must play at point guard to showcase that talent. Since he wasn't playing point at Cal, he felt he needs to move somewhere where he can start at PG.
- Monty and Harper Kamp talk about Franklin's decision and how the already undermanned team will fill adjust to his absence.
- Cal falls to third in Wilner's rankings of Bay Area teams and into ninth in his rankings of Pac-10 teams.
Football
- San Jose running back Byron Marshall has been impressed with Gould's ability to turn recruits into NFL players.
- Chris Conte and Mike Mohamed have accepted invitations to the East-West Shrine Game. It will be televised on NFL Network on January 22nd at 1pm PT.
- Nevada coach Chris Ault talks about how his team's win over Cal gave them the confidence to propel them to a 12-1 record. Kaepernick said he knew his team had accomplished its goal when Cal players were arguing about who was supposed to be where on defense.
- Mike Blasquez has taken over as the strength and conditioning coach.