MoMo Jones: A somewhat respectable interview for once

Arizona point guard MoMo Jones earned his first Pac-10 Player of the Week honor for the last week of January after two 17-point games against UCLA and USC. He followed up last week with an average of 21 points on the Bay Area road trip, including his showstopper at Cal. Next up is a trip to Tempe for Sunday’s hardwood version of the Duel in the Desert.

Sarah: I don’t want to ruin your (Player of the Week) honor or anything, but I feel like you should have gotten it again last week.

MoMo: I do, too, but hey, we got the wins. That’s all I really care about.

Sarah: Yeah, but still. I mean, (Joevan Catron) had nice numbers, but your performance was much more vital to your team’s success than his was to Oregon’s.

MoMo: I just try not to think about it. It would have been nice to win it two weeks in a row. I would have been the first person to do that since Steve Kerr [Note: Hassan Adams received back-to-back honors Dec. 26, 2005 and Jan. 2, 2006], but you have to take it for what it’s worth and move on.

Sarah: Fair enough. All right, so let’s talk about your performance against Cal. You hit a jumper and a free throw to tie the game with 16 seconds left in regulation. Then with six seconds left in double overtime you hit a three to tie it up at 98. You added three points in the third overtime to your total of 27 on the night. Where did that come from?

MoMo: I just had to will myself to do it. I mean, I was tired, but I like those big moments. I like the big stage and I had to come up with the big shots. That’s what I try to do and it worked out that night.

Sarah: That’s kind of your signature, the big moments. I remember Stanford last year and a couple times this year already. That’s your thing, isn’t it?

MoMo: I love it. That’s what defines me. To me, anybody can play good when you’re up by 20 or when you’re just beating the crap out of teams. I just like to pride myself on what type of person you are and what type of player you are when that moment comes. I want to be known as the guy who likes to take those shots, but I’m also going to make them when it counts.

Sarah: You’ve been in beast mode the last couple weeks. Has anything specific inspired you recently?

MoMo: Just wanting to play better. I went through what I had to go through, I worked hard and I felt like it was just around that time for my game to take off to the next level. I just try to will myself to do it and, at this point in time, it’s all coming together and it feels great.

Sarah: I read some of your post-game quotes and saw that you said, “I’ve played like this my whole life. To other people it might be something new, but to me it’s just another day in the life of MoMo Jones.” I have to say, of the many things I respect about you, the one thing I love most is your absolute killer confidence. Where do you get that from?

MoMo: Just from my parents and the neighborhood I come from, that’s just how you have to be. Whether it’s playing basketball, trying to get a girl, dancing at a party, anything, you just have to be confident within yourself. Some people would say it’s a gift and a curse, but to me, I think that when you are who you are, people have to accept you for who you are. If you change because everybody wants you to change, then you’ll never make it in this life.

Sarah: Speaking of where you grew up—Harlem—did you ever play in Rucker Park?

MoMo: Oh, yeah.

Sarah: How was that?

MoMo: It’s a great experience. Everybody in New York is there. And when you leave that court, if you didn’t play good, you’re going to hear it from every street corner that you walk on because everybody was there. You have to have confidence and swagger playing in that park, too. It was just a great experience, growing up watching it with my dad and just wishing one day that I could play there. I’ve been fortunate enough to play there a lot over my years and I think that’s something that’s prepared me for the big stage.

Sarah: Did you get to play against or watch any of the big-time guys we would know now?

MoMo: I’ve played against Stephon Marbury, Allen Iverson, Jamal Crawford—the list goes on and on. That type of environment, when you come to play, you have to come to play. It’s just a great experience, and that’s something that always sticks with you.

Sarah: Yeah, playing Allen Iverson, I guess so. How long ago was that?

MoMo: I was in high school still.

Sarah: I want your life. That’s pretty cool. So you’ve obviously made a great name for yourself, but on the national level Derrick Williams has grabbed everyone’s attention. Do you feel like you have to play your way out from under his shadow, or are you happy with where you are?

MoMo: I’m happy with where I am. I mean, Derrick is going to be Derrick, and to Derrick’s credit, he’s a great player. Derrick is going to get credit where credit is due. I’m happy with where I’m at. I’m playing great right now. To me, I just take it when people come out to see Derrick, you know, somebody else has to catch their eye, and why not let it be me?

Sarah: When I interviewed you for a season preview in October, you said, “We will be the team where people say ‘We gotta play them tonight?’ or ‘Dang, Arizona, they play hard, and they’re hard-nosed and they don’t care and we don’t want to play against them.’ That’s going to be the team that we’re going to be.” How close are you to being that team?

MoMo: We’re there. We pride ourselves on being hard-nosed and coming out of the gates and punching people in the mouth. That’s what we try to do and we’ve done a great job of doing it: playing defense, rebounding, executing our stuff. Now I think everybody’s getting the sense that Arizona basketball is back and Arizona is the team to beat.

Sarah: You’re the point guard at Point Guard U in the middle of the resurgence of one of the most historic basketball programs in the country. Can you put into perspective what that’s like?

MoMo: I really don’t think about it. I just try to win. This place has been fortunate enough to have some great players and some great teams. We’re just trying to go down in history like the rest of them. We figure if we win, if we play as a team, if we’re one and if we’re together, we can do that. Just to be here is an honor, just to be the next point guard in line, just to be winning. Number 15 in the country and number one in the Pac-10—the school hasn’t done that in a long time. Just to be there, to be the point guard of this team, words can’t even describe the feeling that’s in my body; that goes through my mind.

Sarah: As you just said, you guys are up a game on UCLA right now. Where do you envision being at the end of the Pac-10 tournament?

MoMo: Right now, I would say I envision us in the Pac-10 championship, trying to win the Pac-10. But you just have to take it day by day, you have to stay humble and you have to work. If we can continue to work as hard as we’ve worked in the past and continue to play how we’ve played over this stretch, then we’ll be right where we want to be.

Sarah: Can you really take it day by day, though? It has to be hard not to get ahead of yourself.

MoMo: For me, I can take it day by day for the simple fact that it is a day-by-day grind. You have to practice, practice, practice. You have to practice to the best of your ability. You lift. You shoot.  You watch film. When game time comes you have to put everything into perspective and try not to get ahead of yourself. A lot of people would be jumping off walls because, you know, number 15 in the country, number one in the Pac-10, but with us, this program has been here so many times that we have to be like, “Well, this is what they’re used to around here.” Now it’s time for us to get used to it.

Sarah: Great way to look at it. Do you guys have a goal for March?

MoMo: Just to be in the tournament. Right now, our goal is to get in the tournament and be considered one of the top teams in the country.

Sarah: Anything right now stopping you from achieving that goal?

MoMo: Ourselves. That’s it.

Sarah: So before you can get to March, you have ASU on Sunday. Now, they aren’t exactly the toughest team in the conference, but when U of A and ASU play, you never know what’s going to happen, so what do you predict for Sunday?

MoMo: I just predict two teams going nose-to-nose, playing hard, and us coming out with the victory.

Sarah: Anyone you look up to as far as your game is concerned?

MoMo: Chauncey Billups. A lot of people call him “Big Shot Billups” and he makes the big shots. That’s what I like to do and that’s what I do. He’s a tough-nosed guard. He’s little but he’s strong and he has a big heart, and that’s what I’d like to say my game is.

Sarah: Absolutely. For my own curiosity, really: What was it like playing at Oak Hill (Academy)?

MoMo: It was great. To this day I still can’t believe I played there. But it was a great experience and it prepared me for everything else that’s going to happen to me.

Sarah: Like the NBA?

MoMo: The NBA will take care of itself. Right now I just want to win.