SFCityBear said:I think Montgomery was 57 when he left Stanford.calumnus said:sluggo said:A young Monty? Coach K? He is 56. A mid-career Monty. I hope he sits out a year and comes here in 2022.calumnus said:sluggo said:Agreed. When they played Cal they looked like their talent was second best. Quite a change from Wright, Kuzma, Poeltl and some good role players.calumnus said:NathanAllen said:I'm wrong again. The school is calling it a termination and, per a statement, says his termination and the hiring of the new staff will be fully funded by "athletically-generated resources." His buyout was $6.5M.BeachedBear said:
Fired OR Resignation, I'm surprised either way.
I can imagine (boldly - pure speculation - just for ****s and giggles) two reasons for a resignation.
1. The Kuzma payoff catches up to him and he wants to part ways ahead of it, or (more likely IMHO),
2. He feels he's reached the ceiling of where he can go with Utah. Although Rick Majerus shattered that concept, I could see how Larry K could feel that way after enough years.
The wheels fell off the last two years. Prior to that he was consistently the 3rd in the PAC-12 and a bubble team after getting to the Sweet 16 six years ago.
He is a good Xs and Os coach. He consistently runs one of the most efficient offenses in the country. His challenge is recruiting. He was very successful at Montana but failed in his is brief stint as an NBA coach. He is essentially a copy of his old coach, Mike Montgomery. Montgomery just had that run at Stanford where started getting top recruits.
It will be interesting to see where Krystkowiak ends up and who Utah gets.
Who would want a young Mike Montgomery? Maybe Stanford? It would be scary to see him coach up their talent.
Yeah, that is what I meant. Stanford Monty. Younger than Monty was when we hired him.
But then he went to the Warriors. Then he was in admin at Stanford.
Montgomery was born in 1947 and we hired him in 2008. He was 61 years old.
It is not just age. Monty was a basketball coach since 1969. He had been in coaching 39 years when he took the Cal job. 28 as a head coach. Moreover, he was already in the Hall of Fame. He had nothing to prove. He had no resentment toward Stanford. They loved him. He left them. His choice to go to Cal was not popular among many of his Stanford "friends."
At Stanford he really worked the refs and never got a technical. At Cal he got T-d up regularly and we later learned the PAC-12 Head of Refereeing offered a bounty to refs for giving him technicals or ejecting him.
Then in 2011 three years into the Cal job he had stomach cancer, surgery and chemotherapy.
Then in 2013 he shoved his best player, Allen Crabbe, on national TV. The optics of an older white male authority figure using physical force on his younger African American charge were horrible. His initial statement was unapologetic resulting in extremely negative publicity nationwide and censure by the PAC-12.
Aaron Gordon dropped Cal from his list and signed with Arizona. The 2013 class was mostly already signed but 2014 and 2015 did not look good (though some claim we would have landed Poetle).
During the season Monty let DeCuire run practices and coach the players during games. Solomon in particular responded, averaging a double double on the season. After the NIT loss, Monty retired. Over 1,000 games as a head coach. The last years especially took their toll. He had already beaten cancer once.
Broadcasting really has been good for him. No stress. He seems happy. He can just share his considerable knowledge. I also like that he doesn't talk too much (other color guys we can name). He is efficient, like his offense. His quips and humor come through too.
Krystkowiak had an NBA career. He started coaching in 1998, 22 years ago. He has only had 14 years as a head coach.
He was not able to build on his initial momentum at Utah and fizzled out, largely because of recruiting (him/location), but he is a good coach and I think he still has gas in the tank and something to prove. I could easily see him coaching 10 more years in the right situation.
