Feb. 5, 2009

Recap |  Final Stats |  Notes

BERKELEY - California head coach Mike Montgomery

On how big tonight's victory was for the team

:
Certainly Washington is an excellent team and they've proven that. They're very athletic, they're great on the boards. We had a little run in the second half, where we got down, got a little soft and then challenged them a little bit. Then we came back and played well from that point forward. Jordan's played pretty doggone well. He's really done a nice job for us last few games, much more aggressive. We messed with them defensively a little bit and I thought that helped us. Jerome [Randle] came alive in the second half; Theo [Robertson] was good on top of that zone. It was a good win. I think that on the road, they got a bit stagnant and lost their confidence a little bit, so it happens. It was a great win for us.

On playing the post tonight:
They just played regular defense. Jordan got more aggressive. It's just a different defense, they just played differently. Jordan shot the ball and rebounded it pretty well. It was straight up defense.

On shutting down Washington's guards:
We played a little different defense for this game. It's just something we felt would help us and it turned out to be a pretty good deal.

On how Jorge Gutierrez played against Isaiah Thomas:
Jorge's a tough kid. He defended him [Isaiah Thomas] actually in Seattle and [Justin] Dentmon was the guy that hurt us. He [Jorge] went in and did another good job. He's a freshman--both of them are freshman--but he's a tough kid, he defends. He did a really nice job and really helped us.

Washington head coach Lorenzo Romar

On if tonight's loss was similar to the loss against Arizona last week

:
It was [similar] a little bit, but worse. In the Arizona game we found a way to scrap but didn't have a defensive effort. [Tonight] we didn't get in sync and we weren't shooting the ball as much as we have in the past.

On Washington's nine-point lead in the second half:
We didn't play right in the first half. We made mental mistakes. In the second half we played with energy. [Jordan] Wilkes had a fantastic game. He's been playing well lately. Cal just got into a rhythm.

On the impact of Cal's bench:
Cal played good in the second half. Jorge [Gutierrez] got big shots. It was a great team victory.

On Cal's defense:
They did a good job on Jon Brockman. Tonight we didn't shoot the ball as much as we should.