Pac-10 Coaches Circle Gets (even) Better: Mike Montgomery to California

The Pac-10 Conference has some really good players.  Great players actually.  But is there any question that one of this conferences strengths is its coaches?  I don't think so.  Howland has transformed UCLA, Bennett is working wonders at Washington St., and Sendek is starting very strong in Tempe.  Oh, and Kent, Johnson, and Floyd aren't bad either.

Anyway, according to news reports this morning, the Pac-10 coaching circle is getting even better, as it appears that former Stanford and Golden State Warriors head coach Mike Montgomery is headed to California to replace Ben Braun.  According to espn.com's Andy Katz:

Braun was fired as coach last Wednesday after 12 years at Cal.

Montgomery led Stanford to the 1998 Final Four and helped resurrect the Cardinal into a national program.

I must admit that I am surprised by the story.  Not that Montgomery is getting back into coaching, but that he might be headed to California.  You just don't see coaches leaving one program for a rival program within the same conference.

True, Montgomery left Stanford and went to the Warriors.  But after being fired by the Warriors, Montgomery has been working as some kind of consultant for Stanford--so he really is leaving Stanford for Cal.  Crazy.

Putting aside the Stanford to Cal story, I think this move is good for the conference.  California will get better, and with that, the entire conference is better.

The San Francisco Chronicle was beat to the story and still hasn't filed an official report.  However, Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News has this bit about what is now, still just a strong rumor:

Would Montgomery take the Cal job if offered? Would Mr. Stanford Basketball really wear blue and gold? He's not talking about it - that alone makes me think something's brewing - but longtime Montgomery watchers believe he would seriously consider it. He might not take it, but he would seriously consider it.

The big hurdle - the reason I wonder if he'll ever jump back in - is the recruiting. Montgomery wants no part of the seedy side of college basketball: pandering to teenagers and their families, AAU coaches and assorted handlers.

On The Farm, he rarely had to. The players who were interested in Stanford, and could be admitted to Stanford, were generally well-grounded kids from middle-class, two-parent homes. That's one of several reasons it was the perfect job for Montgomery.

There's also the rivalry issue. Montgomery has spent 19 of the past 21 years at Stanford, but I don't think that would stop him - if everything else felt right - from working for the Golden Bears. He's not a Stanford alum and always has had great respect for Cal as an institution.

Of course, all this assumes interest on Cal's part. If Montgomery's not a bright flashing dot smack in the center of the Bears' radar, he should be. He beat them to a pulp time and again while working with a much smaller pool of recruits.

As stated at the top, Randy Bennett and Mark Fox seemingly make much more sense as successors to Ben Braun at Cal, just as Johnson makes much more sense as Stanford's coach next season.

But both alternate-universe possibilities are pulsating through the West Coast branch of the coaching grapevine - home of speculative scenarios that often seem preposterously farfetched.

Until they happen.