1 post tagged “cal”

Well, I didn't see that coming.  While I think Mike Montgomery is a terrific coach, I never expected him to jump across the bay to coach for the rival of his current employer (Stanford).  I always thought school loyalties should trump everything else.  For example, it's also weird to see Ken Norton, Jr. coaching at USC when he went to school at UCLA.  But I guess it's different when you're not an alum of either school (Montgomery graduated from Long Beach State).

It's clear Cal Athletic Director Sandy Barbour wanted to go with a big name with this hire.  She couldn't do worse than Montgomery, that's for sure.  I love her hire of Cal women's coach, Joanne Boyle (she of the messy hair), so I hope Montgomery will at least come close to matching his success at Stanford. My complaints about Ben Braun, the former coach, was that he never had a team with any specific style of play.  They were supposed to be defensive-minded, but that never seemed to show itself from year-to-year. And for what it's worth, all of his teams were going to finish around .500.  As an alum, I'd like to see the team go to the NCAA Tournament every other year, and a deep run (Sweet 16 or better) every 5 years.  Montgomery should be able to achieve that.

Maybe next year, we can see Cal basketball match the success of their rivals across the bay.