Montgomery striving for Golden Bears' perfection

(AP Photo/Julie Jacobson)

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"If I ever get to the point where I'm satisfied with everything, we're either going to win a national championship or we're not worth coaching," were the words of California's head coach Mike Montgomery after defeating the Jacksonville Dolphins 79-47 Tuesday night. It was in response to one reporter's mention that he didn't seem very satisfied on the bench during the game.

If there wasn't a scoreboard, and you were forced only to watch Montgomery during a game, you would think that Cal's men's basketball team was one of the most frustrating teams in the nation to coach. That's not the case, but it would be difficult to tell during a game.

That's the nature of the beast when it comes to sports in general. Either you strive and demand for perfection or you're looking up to plenty of other teams in the standings who do. Was he unhappy with his teams performance Tuesday night? "No, we're fine. It's coaching. Trying to get better. I'm not a cheerleader," said Montgomery, even though nobody would ever confuse him as part of the cheer squad.

'Monty', as he's affectionately called around the Bay Area, isn't the cuddly personality as the name might suggest, but he is what he wants to be--a great college basketball coach. He has achieved success not only knowing how to teach a kid to block out below the rim or demand a kid to put it all on the line for the betterment of the team, but because he genuinely cares about the players as people--even if they aren't on his team.

Prior to the game against Jacksonville, he had nothing but good things to say about the visiting team. When his team easily disposed of the mid-major at Haas Pavilion, I asked him if he was surprised with how easy it was. "Well, you know, yeah. I think what--of course, only been doing this and answering this same question for 40 years," said Monty in his own unique, backhanded way of scolding me for asking the question.

But then he went on, and he did so as passionately as he is on the court. "Somebody asked me yesterday--I don't remember specifically--"Well you got a cupcake coming in here." I just hate that. You got a bunch of kids trying to compete and they all of a sudden become somebody not worthy. I just can't stand that. They're college kids playing basketball and they're picked to win their league. What I want is our team to play as well as we can play and then whatever happens, happens."

"To get involved with the roller coaster of whether they are supposed to be any good or not in somebody else's opinion doesn't work for me," he continued. "And it frankly doesn't work for our basketball team. We've gotta' play hard every game out so that when get against an opponent that, in an game that's an even game, maybe we can play a little bit harder than they do or maybe we can want it a little bit more. Because if we don't, we're not going to have the kind of year we want to have."

The first paragraph of that answer is telling about Montgomery's empathy towards the kids putting their bodies on the line for two points in a 100-point game. The second paragraph is why Montgomery's teams are always winners on the court.

It's that intensity, which sometimes comes off as being gruff, that drives Cal's head coach to expect demand perfection from his players. That intensity has also rubbed off to the point that they also demand that same perfection from themselves.

After the win, star swingman Patrick Christopher was asked if he was happy not to see another zone defense like they'd seen in their two-game losing streak. "I think guys are just anxious to get back on the floor and play," Christopher said. "You know after, performing under par, or not as we wanted to. And to get back in here and get a win."

"That was just the mood I believe. As far as the zone, we'll see it again eventually. So fixing it is something we need to continue to work at. So we can't be afraid of it. When we see a zone, we have to be aggressive and be ready to get them out of the zone and get them into man so we can dominate both."

As Montgomery said after the game, "Lot's of things," need to get better for the Golden Bears to win a Pac-10 title, and make a Final Four run. It's no mystery that you can see they are on their way to getting better. How good the Golden Bears will end up being? Probably not good enough for Monty--and that's probably the best thing Cal has going for them.

Other postgame quotes:

Well, we're trying to be positive with the kids. If they're going to play hard and if they're gonna' sell out for you and take a charge, and do the things that you like them to do, we--Pat's a great shooter, and he has to know we believe in him. He misses a couple, 'Hey! Pat, keep shooting. Get squared up, because we're not gonna' win if you don't.' And we're trying to be positive, especially if the ball moves and it's done correctly. Where the ball is boom-boom, and the guy catches on balance and shoots it. Hey, that's a good play. You know, and it's not so much even the shot as much as it is the pass, or the pass that led to the pass. Those are the things that are gonna' make a big difference, and everybody has to acknowledge that. You know, we've had some turnovers where there's some things we have to learn in traffic that we can't do or we're gonna' continue to turn the ball over too much. We've gotta' get better at those things. So it's still a learning process for our guys and that's maybe one of the things I used to do best, is try to teach kids what works, what doesn't work in certain situations.
- Montgomery on giving Patrick Christopher a pat on the back after his first three-pointer in the second half of the game.

Well, they're upset. They know that this is not Jacksonville basketball.
- Jacksonville head coach Cliff Warren on the mood of his team after the loss to Cal.

O. I call him 'O-board'. He's been a great spark. He does it every day in practice and he knows what we need out of him. If he just continues to do that, we'll be alright. But, just his enthusiasm, high level of coming in there and having an eye for the ball and nose for the ball and scoring.
- Patrick Christopher on the play of fellow teammate Omondi Amoke.

I don't know. I was actually looking at Nikola 'cause he called me Fred Flinstone now, for bricking so much I guess. But yeah, coach hit me on the butt after and I think he was just excited to see me make a jumper.
- Christopher when asked what Montgomery said to him after his first three-pointer of the second half

I really tried to work on my athleticism. Coming in as a freshman, I felt like I was really athletic. You know, I had a good spring and stuff like that. Had the surgery, rehabbing the surgery a little bit and then boom, I messed up my ankle. So it's been a kind of tumultuous type experience. So I feel like I'm finally getting back to how I feel I should be able to play athletically. I did work a lot on my jumpshot. I haven't really been able to showcase that. I've been playing a lot of four, you know, obviously.
- Omondi Amoke on what part of his game he's worked on since last season.

We're getting better at it. Slowly, but surely. I think we'll get to the point where everybody's just at that level prior to tip, in the hallways, and just jumping around going crazy. We get there, we'll be alright. We're still getting there though.
- Christopher on trying to help raise the teams intensity before games.

Yeah definitely. It's felt good because with having Theo out and obviously Harper out, guys have had opportunity to get some playing time and to step up a little bit. You know, help out people like [Je]Rome [Randle], and Pat[rick] [Christopher], and guys like [Ja]Mal [Boykin] who've been here for a few years. So, like he said, I'm trying to just get in there, rebound. Tonight, the lanes were open for me to get to the basket, get a couple of and-one's and stuff. So that's all I'm trying to do right now.
- Amoke on enjoying the extra playing time he's getting with the injury to Theo Robertson and Harper Kamp.

Oh. Theo's foot is still attached. We've not amputated, we're not thinking about it yet. It's not to that degree. We're making great progress with it. There's nothing structurally wrong. There's still pain and as soon as that pain goes away, he's going to be out there playing his tail off. We're going to tweet every hour on the hour with that. So if it changes, that sucker changes...
- Mike Montgomery joking when asked the status of Robertson's foot, which became sore after taking the trip to New York for the finale of the Coaches vs Cancer Classic.

Happy Thanksgiving

I'll be taking a couple of days off to enjoy the holidays with my family and try to finish getting over the remnants of last week's illness. While I don't foresee doing another post until after Cal's game against Princeton on Sunday, feel free to subscribe to this column by clicking the 'subscribe' link at the top of this post. You can also follow me at the links below so you can get a heads-up on anything new.

Have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for checking out Cal Bears news on Examiner.com.

Next Up:
Princeton Tigers at California Golden Bears

DATE: Sunday, Nov. 29, 2009
TIME: 2:00 PM PST
LOCATION: Haas Pavilion, Berkeley, CA.
TV: CSN California
Radio: KFRC (1550 AM)

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