Monty to Cal!
Mike Montgomery has apparently agreed in principle to become the next head basketball coach at Cal, sources have reported to ESPN.
Really? Sweet!
This is the home run hire most of the fans wanted. I don’t know whether any of the other candidates would have been a better coach for our Bears, but I guarantee that none of them would have gotten more butts in the seats. For a program that had been in the midst of a long, slow slide into disinterest, this immediately brings back major interest in Cal Basketball.
…and, of course, that whole rivalry with Stanford just got fiercer.
So, the next question is, does this bring Ryan Anderson back for one more year? My gut says yes. Monty has proved he can develop big men, and I gotta think that, given that, Ryan’s threshold for leaving early has just jumped up a notch.
Where does the money come from? No idea, but thank god for Cal boosters. Monty can’t have been cheap, and I know he’s got a contract buyout with Stanford if he leaves for another Pac-10 school. Oh, sure, the Warriors are still paying him not to coach them, but you can’t imagine he gave the Cardinal’s biggest rival a discount, can you?
Oh yeah, and big ups to Mark Loper for passing us this information. Thanks, man! Mark’s words: "May he recruit some ballers and keep Anderson from going pro." Amen.
<Edit> For those who didn’t see it already, a long article on Montgomery by the Merc’s Jon Wilner, written on Tuesday. An interesting excerpt:
But things change, and what changed is this: Braun’s gone.
The job looks one way when Braun is the sitting head coach, another way when he’s not.
…
* The Braun factor: I wrote last week that Montgomery and Braun are friendly. I should have been more specific: They are not personal friends, but they have a friendly professional relationship.
Montgomery is wary of looking like the bad guy in any situation — like he’s the reason a sitting coach gets fired. That was one of his many reservations about Santa Clara last spring. He didn’t like the way the Broncos treated Dick Davey and wanted no part of that situation.
That said, there has not exactly been an uproar within the coaching industry over the Braun dismissal — nothing like the outrage over Davey.
Braun was there for 12 years, missed the NCAAs four times in the past five years, just finished ninth … nobody has stepped forward to say he got a raw deal. Because he didn’t.
I hope Montgomery and Trent Johnson engage in a fierce slap fight at mid-court next year. Sure, we lost in football and basketball, but we’ll beat them in slap fighting! This rivalry is fierce!
Comment by TwistNHook — April 4, 2008 @ 8:38 am
They should definitely add that to the gauntlet lineup.
Comment by BearBallCarrier — April 4, 2008 @ 9:10 am
Montgomery at Cal? Has the whole world gone topsy-turvy? What’s next, hamburgers eating people?
His name alone should pull in some great recruits. Take us to the promiseland, Monty!
Go Bears!
P.S. Please stay, Ryan. Please?
Comment by CalBandGreat — April 4, 2008 @ 9:33 am
Holy moly! I guess my only concern is that he’s old…how long can we really expect him to hang around? Long enough for some success I hope!
Comment by Ben — April 4, 2008 @ 9:46 am
Good hire. Sorry for not being witty, I’m just happy to see Cal hire someone competent. Go Bears!
Comment by CJ — April 4, 2008 @ 9:47 am
heh, no need to be witty right now. when i first heard the news this morning, it was all i could do to not just throw up a post with a link and a big ol’ ‘WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!’
Comment by ragnarok — April 4, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Ah ha! And now we see the real reason James Montgomery transferred. There’s a law of conservation of Monty at work here…
Comment by katster — April 4, 2008 @ 10:03 am
Yes, our number of Montgomerys has stayed static. HOWEVER, we lost a James. How do we recover?
Clearly, LeBron needs to come play for Cal.
Comment by TwistNHook — April 4, 2008 @ 10:05 am
I’m not as thrilled as everyone else seems to be about this hire. To me it seems like a “safe” hire for SB. Like everyone says, Monty will get people in the seats, which I think is important, but the questions that have to be answered are: can he compete for a league championship; can he go far in the tourney; can he beat UCLA, Arizona, Suckford half the time,; can he take Cal deep in the tourney? In other words is Monty really that good?
I’m not saying this is a bad hire. I just question whether we would be happy with one Final 4 in 18 years (if Monty lasts that long), because that is his greatest lone achievement at Stanford. Or is everyone just thrilled that Ben Braun is fired and that someone else is replacing him? (Someone that we know will do pretty good and get us into the tournament).
Our expectations should not be: “let’s have a coach that does better than Braun.” We should expect Cal to compete with Fucla, Furd, and AZ for championships and should expect Cal to get to the Final Four more than once every 18 years. It’s just that too many Furd teams made it to the tourney under Monty and seem to have lost in the early rounds. Maybe my expectations are too high but that’s not good enough.
My buddies keep telling me that Monty will be great for Cal because he won’t be limited by the Furd’s admissions process. I hope so. But until I see some results, I’m not going to bust a nut like the rest of you have.
Comment by oaktownmario — April 4, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
This hire also goes to show that media reports are all bullshit. Many reports were saying that Monty would never be a candidate for the Cal job, but obviously those were completely wrong.
We should keep in mind Billy Beane’s comments about “sources close to the A’s.” His response to those kind of reports has always been something like: “If I’m not saying it or [assistant GM] David Forst isn’t saying it, then there’s no source and hence no truth to a story that cites such anonymous sources.”
Unless they quote Sandy or Tedford or whoever, pay no mind to the dreaded “sources close” reports. . . Unless it says “sources close to Cal Golden Blogs” . . .
Comment by oaktownmario — April 4, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
Not plussed by this hire. Being a college basketball coach is a demanding job, and I don’t think Monty has the fire to do it anymore. He has already proved himself at this level. No question he is a great coach. Not sure if he is a great recruiter. Would rather have someone who is going to make his name here instead of someone who already has and is facilitating career advancement for his son.
But as it is, we on the outsied probably have no clue the factors involved int he decision, so I will susupend judgement until after the first game or two
Comment by Derek Izuel — April 4, 2008 @ 1:56 pm