Thank goodness fans in the Pac-10 aren’t as rowdy as the rest of the country. If so, then California better invest in some more “Event Staff” because they turned to rival Stanford for their new basketball coach. According to the AP, Mike Montgomery (25-12 record against Cal), Friday, decided to replace the fired Ben Braun as the leader of the Bears.
Braun was fired after 12 seasons with Bears. He was let go after the Bears missed the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in five years. Montgomery, on the other hand, made the tournament his final 10 years at Stanford, and won at least one game each time.
He’ll be officially announced later today at a news conference.
Oh, how the story goes. Montgomery has a career college coaching record of 547-244, including eight seasons at Montana. He spent 18 years with the Trees of Stanford but has been “retired” since August 2006 after he left Golden State (see: Fired). It wasn’t all bad for Montgomery, though. He announced college games and was an assistant athletic director at Stanford while collecting money from the final two years of his contract with Golden State.
Montgomery was a successful college coach before leaving for the NBA. When he showed up at Stanford, they hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament since 1942 and when he left, the Trees had been to 12 tournaments in 18 seasons.
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