Notes: Haase introduced at Stanford

Jerod Haase was officially introduced as Stanford's head men's basketball coach in an on-campus press conference earlier today. He also met with a smaller group of media members in a more informal setting after the press conference concluded.

Below are some key notes, quotes and takeaways from Haase's first media sessions of his tenure at Stanford.

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A South Lake Tahoe native, Haase did receive recruiting attention from former Stanford coach Mike Montgomery's coaching staff, but the Cardinal never extended a scholarship offer. Haase ended up signing with Cal, but a Stanford offer might have changed the equation.

"Twenty-five years ago I was a student-athlete with the goal of playing at Stanford. I worked hard and Coach Montgomery and his staff did recruit me," Haase said. "It didn't work out the first time. I wasn't able to come and realize the dream of playing at Stanford at that point."

Haase also attended an elite camp at Stanford during the course of his recruiting process, where he took home MVP honors. He saved the MVP trophy - as well as his other recruiting correspondence from Stanford - and brought it to his interview with Cardinal athletic director Bernard Muir.

"This is a situation where I have a second chance at something very, very special," Haase said.

Haase said he has no hard feelings over not receiving a Stanford scholarship offer. He still holds Mike Montgomery in high regard, and Montgomery was in fact one of the people Muir consulted during his search. (Stanford did not hire a search firm.)

"Over the last 20 years I've probably crossed paths with (Montgomery) a half dozen times and he's always said really nice things about me, but that's just probably his way of making me feel better for not offering me a scholarship," Haase quipped.

A meeting with redshirt junior forward Rosco Allen, who could consider turning pro rather than returning for a fifth year, is among the items on Haase's agenda.

"I met with the team earlier," Haase said. "I'm going to meet with (Rosco) moving forward, too. That's one of many many questions before we have 100 percent confirmation on everything. I just don't know yet."

Similar questions surround redshirt junior guard Christian Sanders, who also has an additional year of eligibility.

"I'm going to visit with him some more too and find out his desires and work out all of the details there, so I don't know exactly how that situation is going to turn out, but I've known Christian for a long time and think the world of him as a person and as a player," Haase said.

Haase said that he got to know Allen and Sanders during the recruiting process.

Then there's the matter of Stanford's future recruiting prospects. Haase will actually be out on the road tomorrow to start recruiting, and he's already been in touch with the Cardinal's lone 2016 signee, Trevor Stanback.

"I have had some communication (with Stanback)," Haase said. "I haven't studied a ton of film - it's been a wild 48 hours. But that is one of the priorities right now - recruiting in general - is to make sure we get all of that situated."

Rivals100 standout Kodye Pugh is also committed to Stanford, though unlike Stanback he has not yet signed his Letter of Intent. Haase did not comment on Pugh's recruitment.

"What we're doing is making the phone calls, building the relationships for all of the recruits at every level," Haase said. "One of the things here is the ability to identify kids early is so important. That's part of the process that we're working through right now.

"The relationships and the conversations I've had with all of the recruits are very, very positive right now."

Of course, admissions is a central concern to any discussion of Stanford recruiting. And sure enough, Haase has already met with Stanford's dean of admissions.

"I know the goal is to get the ultimate student-athlete and you're not going to compromise for the academics and I'm not going to compromise for the athletic part," Haase said. "So we're going to have to dig and find the absolute best student-athletes in the country."

"I think we're going to get four-year players here and I think that's a positive. To be honest with you, the dream scenario would be to have kids that are good enough to go to the NBA after their first year but stay for four years. When kids get here they understand the value of the education and they're going to finish their degrees here."

Stanford dealt with its share of injuries during Johnny Dawkins' tenure on The Farm. Athletic Director Bernard Muir said that the athletic department has taken and will continue to take steps to maximize player health.

"Actually this year we tried to take some new approaches, especially after the rash of injuries that we had," Muir said. "We brought our sports medicine staff, our strength and conditioning staff, together, and just talked about why are we feeling this, why are so many of our student-athletes going down. So we started that process this year. That's something Jared is well aware of so I envision we'll have the same gathering of our group and figuring out OK, as we move forward, knowing the style of play that he wants to uphold here, how do we do this and make sure our student-athletes are safe and prepared for the rigors that they're about to go under."

Haase noted that he does have an understanding of the health issues that have plagued the program in recent seasons and that injury prevention will be among the many aspects of Stanford basketball that he will take under evaluation.

"The program in general, I'm going to look at every part of it and evaluate it and figure it out," Haase said. "Obviously there have been some injuries in the past. Moving forward I do think I have a good feel for how we train and what we do and I anticipate putting the same kind of things in place that I did at UAB. But I'm aware of what happened in the past and we'll address it as we go forward."

Haase is currently in the process of putting together his coaching staff. He doesn't have a timeline for finalizing the group, but Stanford's assistants could be set within the next few weeks.

"I do want to move as quickly as I can but I don't think it's going to be in a short number of days," Haase said. "But I think after the Final Four I'll at least have a pretty good feel for where I stand."

“I have not made any decisions on my staff at this point. I'm going to see where a lot of things go. I'm going to visit with people at the Final Four. I've already started conversations with a lot of people from the current staff, to former players, former coaches at Stanford to a lot of different contacts I have around the country.”

Former Cardinal player and coach (and University of Portland head coach) Eric Reveno could be among the candidates.

"I have talked to him along with a variety of other former players, former people with connections to Stanford and then my contacts all over," Haase said. "With him, to be honest with you, he's just a good guy that I've known that will also give me some groundwork about Stanford. One of the things that is important to me is having relationships with my staff and being able to have a staff that meshes together that's going to bring out the best in me and that's going to represent and get Stanford the place we want it to get to."

It has been reported that UAB assistant Jeff Wulbrun will accompany Haase to The Farm, though there was no mention of Wulbrun at the press conference.

“Stanford is a national brand, both Stanford basketball and Stanford University, and I anticipate us recruiting on the West Coast first, but we're going to recruit nationally," Haase said. "I'm going to put a staff together that does a couple things, but the biggest thing is put us in a position to be successful and serve our student-athletes. I don't know exactly what that's going to look like at the end of the day, but it is going to be something that they're going to be loyal to me, support me, and help us create the brand and create the identity we're looking to do."

Haase emphasized his desire to utilize an attacking style on defense and an unselfish one on offense.

“With the style of play, my goal is to have an attack mentality," Haase said. "We are going to have to get after people defensively and try to create turnovers, try to create some opportunities to go to the other end, but we're going to be smart about it. I'm not going to say we're going to deny every pass all the way out to half court and press the entire time.”

“Offensively we'll do the same thing. We're going to share the basketball and do it in a way we move and attack. This year at UAB, we were one of the top five in the country with assists. I think that's important with the idea of unselfishness. Now having said all that, I am going to evaluate the team we have, the recruits that are coming in, look at this puzzle and put these pieces together so that we can be as successful as possible. I think that's my job as a head coach is to try to put the players in a position to be successful.

Specifically, Haase favors man defense an offensive system conducive to motion and ball movement.

"I prefer to play man-to-man defense," Haase said. "I would guess this past year we probably played 80 to 85 percent man and then some zone as well. We'll look at a variety of different defenses. The nitty gritty - are we going to double in the post, are we going to trap ball screens, we'll figure out, and a lot of that will be based on on personnel. We do want to be aggressive.

"Offensively I feel much more comfortable having an offense where the guys share the basketball, there's a lot of ball movement and sharing of the basketball and we'll work on all of the details of that as well."