The KC Jones Interview
By:
Michael D. McClellan
|
Sunday, August 4th, 2002
That’s
a great lead-in to my next question. At this
tournament USF earned a reputation for blitzing
opponents, going on scoring binges of anywhere from 10
to 20 unanswered points. Examples of this include
the 31-12 start against offensive powerhouse Stanford
and the 20-0 start against Cal. Tell me about
those outbursts.
We played great team defense, and that in
turn led to our offensive outbursts. We were all
hustlers. We scrambled out there. We did
whatever we could to make the other team stumble, and
when we did we really tried to pour it on. Defense
was our signature. We had some good offensive
weapons, too, like Mike Farmer, but defense was our
greatest strength.
I don’t know what Gardner was trying to do, especially
when we had to turn right around and face Oregon State
on their home court. We didn’t have a gym on
campus. We played our games at the Cow Palace and
at Kezar (Pavilion), so Gardner’s argument seemed
strange to us.
West Texas tried to tackle Bill. It was rough out
there. What they were trying to do with the
physical style of play backfired, because it angered us
and made us play harder. We didn’t let it take
us out of the game and we won big against West Texas.
USF vs. Utah in the
Western Regional. Number 1 vs. Number 4.
Bill Russell, fighting a heavy cold, is ruled unfit to
play at halftime by the Oregon State doctor on duty.
With Russell out Utah began to make its move, closing a
41-20 halftime deficit to an 8 point spread. Are
you glad Bill got a second opinion (from Dr. Ed Duggan,
a USF alum, no less) and was able to come back out?
We weren’t concerned. Our focus was on winning
the game, and we were prepared to win it without Bill if
that were the case. It was a great bonus to get
him back, and we ended up winning the game by a
comfortable margin (78-59).
USF vs. Oregon State.
Bill Russell vs. Oregon State’s 7’-3” mammoth
center, Swede Halbrook. John Wooden has been
quoted as saying: “Russell’s the greatest
defensive man I’ve ever seen, but I don’t see how he
can cope with Swede Halbrook…I don’t believe that
Russell will be able to block Halbrook’s shots or
control him like he does smaller men.”
Wooden’s quote brings to mind all those great battles
with Wilt Chamberlain. Were you concerned that
Bill would have trouble with Halbrook?
When the game started it was easy to see Oregon
State’s strategy, which was to sag its defense around
Russell. By collapsing on Bill their goal was to
take him out of the game, and to force other players to
beat them. So Phil (Woolpert) calls a timeout, and
during the timeout he tells Stan Buchanan to shoot the
ball. Stan’s defender, Phil Shadoin, was the
player sagging on Russell, which was leaving Stan wide
open.
Well, Stan missed his first two shots after the timeout,
and everyone was screaming at him to continue shooting.
We didn’t care if he made the shots or missed them, we
needed him to take the shots and force Shadoin away from
Bill. And after missing those first two shots Stan
made the next two. From that point on Shadoin had
to play honest defense.
There
were other concerns. The game was being played on
Oregon State’s home court. Oregon State, playing
without Halbrook, had been routed 60-34 by USF earlier
in the season and were looking for the payback.
Bill Russell still not at 100%. And to
make matters worse, USF captain Jerry Mullen sprains his
ankle very early in the game. Did USF, like your
Celtics, play better with its back against the wall?
We were completely focused on winning the game,
which we did.
