California head coach Cuonzo Martin
Opening Statement
“Good win. Two scrappy teams battling out there. I thought my staff did a great job battling and competing. They set a tone early and really executed. I thought we were a step slow early in the game. Give those guys credit for making plays. We thought it would really be a tough matchup with Rosco (Allen) and with Ivan guarding Rosco, Ivan's a traditional big guy and trying to guard Rosco is not an easy task. I thought Ivan did a really good job, especially in the second half, of just trying to battle and keep him in front of him. It's not an easy thing to do with a big guy that's 6-9 and can go off the dribble and make plays. We felt like something had to give; either Rosco would dominate the game, Ivan would dominate on the other end or they'd trade baskets. Ivan did a great job in the second half really battling. I thought Kameron Rooks played really well but he continues to play well and you can see that in practice, so I'm not surprised by that. The biggest key now, offensively, is keeping balls alive. When we played at their place, you watch it on film and he fumbled four or five putback balls we thought we had an opportunity to score on. This time, he comes up with the ball, scores the basket and was just a great presence around the rim putting pressure on their big guys. Great team effort and good win for our guys.”
On Rooks' comeback after injury
“You like to see guys play well, especially guys coming off injuries because I know what that feels like, but also see the work the guy puts in. It's not like he's a guy that goes out there and says I get what I get. He puts a lot of work into his game. He's one of those guys that changes shirts halfway through practice because he's so exhausted and sweating because he competes at a high level. To see Kam play well is a credit to his work but also as a coach you're happy to see it because you know what he does and how much time he puts into it.”
On Sam Singer's nine-assist, two-turnover performance
“He did a great job outside of those last two turnovers late in the game. Other than that, I thought he did a really good job of running the team, finding guys. Sam has to be aggressive because he can make plays. The next phase for Sam is attacking the rim to make plays at the basket for himself. When he does that, he puts more pressure on the defense and it helps other guys do what they need to do. I'm not surprised by the nine assists. If Sam's aggressive and he's locked in, he'll be in the ballpark with six, seven, eight or nine assists a game.”
On Roger Moute a Bidias' defensive effort
“I like guys who play defense and guys know that. Roger battles, he competes, he plays extremely hard. The next phase for Roger is consistently playing defense over the course of time without fouling. He gets costly fouls, wrestling guys but he's aggressive, so that's a plus. We really consistently work with him on not fouling playing defense because he puts a lot of pressure on guys when he's defending. He moves his feet, he boxes out well, he plays hard, he runs the floor and when he's making his 3-point shot, he's a presence for us on the offensive side of the ball.”
On the team's aggressiveness compared to the last meeting with Stanford
“We always want to be aggressive. I thought at their place, we didn't play well. Those are some of the road woes for our team. You always want to be aggressive. The biggest key that we talked about more than anything was our big guys had to win the game. That's where the game would be won, on the blocks, meaning our bigs scoring around the rim, getting those guys in foul trouble or Rosco's making plays and we have to make adjustments. I felt like we did a good job from that standpoint. Our big guys really put pressure on those guys and forced them to do something defensively.”
On committing 16 turnovers
“That's been the negative. In this case, you get careless with the ball. You have a lead, you're up, you have to take care of the ball consistently. We'll continue to work at it. Some of those were bad turnovers. Late in the game when you're up, you have to take care of the ball and do the right things.”
California Student-Athletes
Junior Guard Jordan Mathews
On his 3-point shooting
“It's really just a game-by-game thing. Colorado was just another game, Utah was just another game where shots weren't falling. You're going to have games like that, and it plays itself out. My teammates keep telling me to shoot the ball, and tonight it just went through the hoop.”
On Stanford's play
“We wanted to handle their double-teams against Ivan (Rabb) and I think we did a great job with that. Coach really told us to turn and face the double team, not shy away from it and we were making up for our lack of aggressiveness last time we played them. They shot 38 free throws last game, and we should have shot a similar number, and we didn't, and that really showed our lack of aggressiveness. So today we just thought being aggressive and throwing the ball in the paint and having our bigs perform well tonight would get us the win.”
On the season
“You feel like you need to win every one, but we definitely felt it was an important rivalry game to play. Honestly, it doesn't matter who you play, you always have to perform.”
Sophomore Center Kameron Rooks
On his game play
“I was crashing the glass, doing what I have to do on defense and then I just knew the offense would come to me. My teammates fed me the ball and I knew I could make get my shots up when I rebound well. I feel a lot of satisfaction in how I'm playing right now.”
On Stanford's size
“I knew they were a lot smaller than I'm used to playing against. I go against Kingsley (Okoroh) every single day in practice and that's a big dude, so when you go against someone smaller after that, you definitely have an advantage. Our forwards did a good job, we all did a good job switching ball screens the entire game which really helped us win.”
Stanford Head Coach Johnny Dawkins
Opening Statement
“Cal played well. Give them a lot of credit. I thought (Kameron) Rooks really stepped up and gave them a big lift. He had a double-double and he's a really big player in the post and he really kind of imposed his will down there. And then I thought guys like (Jabari) Bird and (Jordan) Mathews made good contributions to the team. They both shot the ball well tonight and gave them a big lift offensively. We have to be better. We have to be better defensively, I'm disappointed in how we played on that end of the floor and come Monday we're going to get after it.”
On the road losses
“Well, to be quite frank, our defense hasn't traveled and that's why I say Monday we've got to continue to focus on it. It's not like we haven't yet, but we have to make sure we look at tweaking some things that we do defensively. We need to make sure our guys are focused in on that end of the floor and not focusing on the offensive end of the floor as much. We've got to start on the defense, it hadn't traveled, and that's what's happening in all the games that we've been on the road. We just haven't defended as well as you need to compete on the road.”
On facing Oregon State next week
“We have to start preparing for the next game. I'm going to look at the film and we as a staff are going to look at what we can do better. It always starts with what we can do to help our guys and build off of it this week when we start practice, but we have to have an emphasis where we have to become a much more stingier team on the defensive end of the floor.”
