Kyle Smith on Stanford's Current Run, New Football Coach Tavita Pritchard

On Monday night, Stanford took down Portland to win their third straight game in five days. The Cardinal have been dominating the competition recently, and are beginning to build their case as a potential March Madness team.

Cardinal head coach Kyle Smith spoke to the media following the win. Here’s what he had to say:

He began with an opening statement. "I felt really good about a lot of things in this game, especially playing our third game in five days, coming off a really emotional win against St. Louis. You never know exactly how your team's gonna handle it.

"I thought our guys handled it really well. We came out, shot the ball really well, that always helps. But for about 32 minutes, we played really, really well. They were one of the best two point shooting teams in the country, and they'd find a way to score around the rim and stuff, and kudos to them, they shot it pretty well, but we, overall defensively, were pretty solid.

"We rebounded well. We got 12 offensive boards against them, and they're usually top 20 in the country, and defensive rebounding, and then only eight turnovers. They don't turn you over a lot, but anytime we're under 10, is gonna be pretty good. Should be a good result.”

He was first asked about Joel Foxwell and their ability to stop the freshman phenom. “We made that the head of the snake, and I think people underestimate Benny Gealer and Ebuka Okorie, they are really good defenders. We just made it hard on him. I was surprised, he's a good little player, but I don't know, nothing more than, this is telling this their best. This is the key to the whole deal, and we did a good job of making other guys beat us, and Williams had a good game."

"And we were worried about George. Yeah, he still had nine. He was still pretty good in his 18 minutes, but nothing out of the ordinary. Other than that just getting a great senior effort from Benny, and then Ebuka could contribute there, too.”

Smith was also asked about the momentum of three straight wins in the fashion they achieved. “You never know how your team is going to respond, but I felt like we just tightened up in a big way, and like I said, Seattle competed harder than us in the last 10 minutes, and hopefully, we learned a lesson from that.

"I think what came out of the desert was just more solid, our roles and identities a little more solidified, and then I think that's the first half, like, just a little more, finally getting more comfortable, Jeremy Dent-Smith coming off the bench, making some shots. He needed that just to kind of settle in.

"Ryan Agarwal settled into his role, and then Oscar Giltay really took another big step forward, and I think that came against St. Louis, where he had seven rebounds in 13 minutes, and he really helped us. So those guys, kind of knowing the role, getting confident, is gonna make us better. And I just thought that was another kind of game that put us a step in the right direction.”

He followed that up talking about Dent-Smith having back-to-back great games. “Like I said, he's a winner. He's used to averaging 20 a game, and it's obviously a different level, but we've had great success with guys transferring up. It just takes time.

And really for him, it's just keep getting better defensively. He's a good distributor, a good playmaker, and now he's starting to make some long shots, and that just gives us another dimension. He's a guy that the more comfortable he gets, the better we become.

"I think that in the St. Louis game, he hit that shot at the end of the clock, and then he just kind of remembered this, and I think it'll keep coming. He's a confident guy.”

To take a quick pause on basketball, Smith was asked about the new football head coach, Tavita Pritchard, and how excited he is to have a former Stanford basketball player on the farm as a head coach.

“It's great. I can't wait to meet this guy. He's from Centralia, WA. My wife's from not too far away, Lake Shelland, and I think his cousin is Tony Thompson, who was a good friend of ours from Pullman.

"I’m excited to see another Stanford alum coming back here, and there's a lot of people that want to see this place succeed, and excited to get someone with his experience. And like I said, a hooper, too. He’s a two-sport athlete.”

Finally, he spoke on the women’s basketball game against Tennessee on Wednesday. “We actually are taking the day off to watch them. So, yeah, we're going [Tuesday], and then we take Wednesday off, and by design, we want to be a good support to them.”

The Stanford men host UNLV on Sunday where they hope to continue their win streak into mid-December.

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