Stanford coach pays penalty for ref incident

Friday, Jan. 2, 2004 | 10:24 a.m.

That Morris, who had team highs in assists and blocked shots last season, now possesses a lethal shooting touch should send shivers through the Mountain West.

By the way, only the Mountain West, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences can boast of all their teams having winning non-conference records.

Steve Hawkins, a Ventura, Calif., native, had been a Broncos assistant for three years before accepting the top spot in May, after Robert McCullum moved on to South Florida, who lost Seth Greenberg to Virginia Tech when the Hokies canned Ricky Stokes.

Hawkins' motto is, "Our goals are higher than 10 feet!"

The defeat at much-improved Vanderbilt might have been understandable, but the losses to Wake Forest (by 33 points), Missouri (previously "Exposed" by yours truly) and Kentucky (by 39 points) were shocking.

The Scoop -- The Tigers are second in the nation with a team field-goal percentage of .601. Think the Sooners, ninth in the country in scoring defense at 56.1 points, are looking ahead to Jan. 11, when they play at UConn? We do.

Prediction (0-2) -- Princeton 44, Oklahoma 42.

As Stanford continues to be considered among the finest college basketball programs, Cardinal coach Mike Montgomery finds himself in a unique position today when his 9-0 team plays host to Washington State.

He won't even be inside Maple Pavilion.

For the first time in his 17-plus seasons at Stanford, Montgomery will miss a game when he serves a one-game suspension for grabbing referee Terry Christman during a hot moment against Arizona State last season at Maples.

Stanford assistant Tony Fuller, a former head coach at Pepperdine and San Diego State, calls the shots tonight.

Montgomery's teams annually reflect his competitive drive, which he often masks well in public. Last season, those emotions flashed, albeit without malice, when a few players toppled by the far corner of Stanford's bench.

Christman, with his back to the scrum, jogged past Montgomery. To alleviate a possible fray, Montgomery grabbed Christman's arm to alert him of what was brewing behind him.

Physical contact with an official by a coach, said Pac-10 commissioner Tom Hansen, is "absolutely wrong" and "strictly forbidden."

Christman called a technical foul on Montgomery, but did not eject him. The conference pondered sidelining him for the Cardinal's first game in the Pac-10 tournament, but the school argued, successfully, that that was excessive.

So Montgomery stays home tonight. He has declined comment. In a March statement, he said the contact was inadvertent and he did not intend to intimidate or threaten.

"It was an error on my part," Montgomery wrote, "and I apologize for the incident."

"Mike has a great system," Kent told the San Francisco Chronicle, "and he just reloads that system with the pieces again."

It's pretty simple basketball, Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of Stanford after a recent 87-80 defeat to the Cardinal that hardly would have drawn such attention 10 or 15 years ago.

That simplicity lies in getting easy shots, and making it as difficult as possible for the other guys to score. That's the substance that Montgomery brought to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1986, when he left Montana.

In Missoula, by the way, he provided a preview of what was coming. The Grizzlies never had a losing record in Montgomery's eight seasons, and they won at least 21 games in each of his last four seasons.

Former Stanford athletic director Andy Geiger, now at Ohio State, made a savvy move by hiring Montgomery, and the Cardinal now carries more national cache than UCLA.

From Todd Lichti to Mark Madsen to Casey Jacobsen, to the latest gritty guard or punishing post player, Montgomery has built an unlikely power in Palo Alto.

Stanford has won at least one game in each of the past nine NCAAs, something no other Pac-10 team can boast. And the Cardinal has won its past three games against Arizona in Tucson.

Against UCLA, Stanford has won nine of the past 12 games, including the past six played on the once-vaunted Pauley Pavilion court in Westwood.

Montgomery, 56, admitted to us that, in some ways, it has surprised even him that Stanford is regularly included among the top programs.

And that was two years ago, before the end of a 2001 NCAA tournament in which the Cardinal missed out on a trip to the Final Four in Minneapolis in a West Region final defeat to Maryland in Anaheim.

Montgomery signed a contract extension, through 2007-08, in July.

It is built on some sort of sand foundation that gives it that trampoline effect. As players rush by when you attempt to write on a piece of paper while sitting courtside, you'll produce something that looks like a seismograph chart.

What's most disturbing is the 10 stress-related injuries, uncovered by the San Jose Mercury News last year, that Stanford players have suffered since 1993. A mere coincidence?

That became 11 when outstanding forward Josh Childress was diagnosed with a stress reaction in his left foot a few weeks ago.

Before Pitino landed with the Cardinals, the program had only defeated No. 1 teams twice. The 65-56 victory over the Wildcats last Saturday represented Louisville's second win over a top-ranked team in two weeks.

"This is a special, special moment," Pitino told the Louisville Courier-Journal. "It's my bet win ever -- not in terms of what it meant, but in terms of overcoming the elements and climate.

"Obviously, winning a championship or going to the Final Four is much more significant, but this is the best moment I think I've had with a basketball team."

No. 11 Louisville is 8-1.

Pitino said he was stunned and that he explained to his players that there were four things that they had to overcome in Lexington.

"First, Kentucky is a great basketball team. Second, you're playing the No. 1-ranked team in the country. The third thing is, it's on the road in front of the most hostile crowd you'll ever face," Pitino said.

"And the fourth was that it was a revenge game (for UK). But if you can win, it will be one of the greatest wins of your life."

He is ranked 10th in the country with 6.8 assists a game.

A year ago, Watson was a unanimous selection on the SEC All-Freshman team and a first-team pick on one publication's national All-Frosh squad after his bid to become the first rookie to lead the SEC in assists since 1979 fell two short, at 160.

He averaged 35.8 minutes a game, best in his league.

None of which should surprise anyone who saw him lead Gorman to an 85-14 record, including a pair of 4A state titles, during his three seasons.

In a 15-point defeat to Nebraska in Lincoln three weeks ago, Tennessee's only loss in eight games, Watson made only one of seven 3-point attempts. He can avenge that performance Jan. 10 against Florida in Gainesville.

He has more personal fouls (18) than shot attempts (15). Mustafa Al-Sayyad, a 6-foot-9 junior, is the Bulldogs' regular who has led the team in scoring six times. And Jack Marlow, a 6-10, 315-pound junior, is also around to steal post minutes.

Combined with previous NCAA penalties and the 5/8 recruiting rule, in which a coach can offer a maximum of five scholarships in one year and eight in two, and that's why UNLV currently has only 10 players on scholarship.

Alabama, Arizona, Baylor, Michigan State and Washington State, among many others, have been similarly strapped.

Coaches have tried to coax the NCAA into changing, or eliminating, the 5/8 rule for nearly three years. That might occur next weekend, during the NCAA's annual convention in Nashville.

In the meantime, Black Bears coach John Giannini called Turner one of the highest-rated players ever to land in Orono, Me. Turner must redshirt 2003-04, as per Division I transfer rules, and has two seasons of eligibility remaining.

With only a season of eligibility left, Pearson chose to transfer where he could play immediately, at Division II Mansfield (Pa.).

Two weeks ago, he earned the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Eastern Division player of the week honors by averaging 23.5 points (on 15-for-25 shooting) and 12.5 rebounds in two victories.

Mansfield is 9-1, and Pearson leads the PSAC with a 21.6-point scoring average and is second at 12.2 boards per game.

The Hornets (1-7) opened their season at UNLV (a 65-59 defeat), then went to Georgetown, Creighton, Nebraska, Michigan and Charlotte -- who are a combined 50-9. UNLV and Charlotte own two-thirds of those losses.

The Rebels (8-3) check in at No. 62 on the Sagarin chart.

So far, so good for the team that leads the country in scoring defense, at 48.6 points a game. The Falcons (6-3) beat Cal on its own court Sunday and begins Mountain West Conference play in two weeks at Colorado State and at New Mexico.

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