End of an Era

The following blog post is an email that I wrote earlier today to some fellow Stanford fans. It best sums up my feelings about Mike Montgomery leaving Stanford yesterday.

I didn't get much sleep last night, as I lay awake pondering the devastating
news. I can't believe that the face of Stanford Basketball is leaving us. Mike
Montgomery IS the program.

I was thinking about how this compares to when Tyrone left us for Notre Dame,
but this just feels so different. In football, we have a much longer history
and we've had great coaches leave before. But Monty has been an institution
here for almost two decades and he built our basketball program from the
ground up. On the other hand, when Tyrone left, he had the gall to bolt for
another college team (a team that we play annually, no less). I can at least
respect Monty for going to a job at the highest level in his profession.

So now we start to think about the future. Who will coach the team next year?
We’re already losing Josh, Justin, Lotty and Joe, so we already knew the
team would have a new look. It might make sense to have Tony Fuller or Eric
Reveno serve as interim coach for the coming season, since it is relatively
late in the year for a new coach, new staff and new system to be implemented.
But chances are, the athletic department will hire someone with head coaching
experience. I would be happy if we could lure Mark Few from Gonzaga. I just
hope we don't hastily hire some big name coach who isn’t a good fit for us.
I’m skeptical as to how many good coaches there out there who are available.
I guess there’s Matt Doherty. How about Jerry Tarkanian? Steve Lavin
anyone?!?

While it will be very, very difficult for our next coach to match Monty’s
level of regular season success, I do hold out hope that the new guy will be
able to get better results in the NCAA tournament. I wonder if Monty thought
to himself: “You know, I’ve been here 18 years, got us to the Final Four
and gotten us to #1 in the polls, but I think I’ve achieved all that I can
with Stanford basketball.” It’s a tough question to ask because Monty has
been so great for us, but you wonder if he has taken Stanford as far as he
could.

The thing that really makes this news ironic for me is that the Warriors
happen to be my favorite NBA team. And as a Warriors fan it’s nice to have a
likeable coach, but I think it’s highly questionable hire. College coaches
NEVER succeed in the NBA, and given how often NBA coaches get fired, I will be
very surprised if Monty lasts the four years on his new contract. I guess new
GM Chris Mullin wanted to make a splash, and he did. I guess I’m willing to
give Mullin some benefit of the doubt, if only because he’s not Garry St.
Jean.

So all in all, I’m very sad to see Monty but I do wish him well. He’s
given us 18 great years and I hope that he’s built the program to the point
where it can survive his departure. I just think it would be funny if we heard
these words next month:

“With the 10th pick in the 2004 NBA Draft, the Golden St. Warrriors
select… Josh Childress from Stanford!”