But best wishes to Monty. I enjoyed watching his teams and hearing his analysis.

Agreed. I am very sad to see him go, and wish him the best. I feel privileged to have had him coach here. The program is now at a crossroads - this hire must be a good one, or we lose the momentum Monty created, and are back to the end of the Braun era.

Had NO IDEA this was coming prior to yesterday. 13-0 vs. Oregon!

Indeed.

Sad day indeed. We had some pretty good times with Monty at the helm.

bigcocoon007;842298994 said:

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Had NO IDEA this was coming prior to yesterday. 13-0 vs. Oregon!

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That was an amazing record against Oregon LOL. It really salvaged our pride against them, considering football.

"...back to the end of the Braun era." Or maybe worse. This is a tough pill to swallow. I very much hope there are no health issues driving this. Best of luck, Monty and thanks for the great run you gave us.

Sad, but, when somebody is 67, they often retire, so it's not unexpected. Heck, I'm shooting for earlier than that.

Thanks, Coach Montgomery, for six good years!

In his past 15 years as a PAC12 coach, he never finished lower than fourth in the conference. One of the best.

This could go one of 5 ways:
1. Awesome new coach comes in, utilizes our current guys and brings in some awesome recruits.
2. Awesome new coach comes in, but no new guys, maybe lose someone.
3. Mediocre guy comes in from lower mid-major.
4. Completely unknown guy comes in from Louisiana State- Bogalusa.
5. One of the Assistant coaches gets promoted.

I'd wager on 3 or 4.

Speaking of which....which players are tied to MM the most and thus potential transferees?

I will miss Coach M. I have lived on the Peninsula for 3 decades and I attended most all Cal / $tanford basketball games at Maples back before Dr Tom Davis (whom I miss at the farm, very much) When Monty took over there I had similar expectations but I was jealously disappointed. Monty owned us during his time with the furd. I attended 90% of the games against Cal that he coached most every one with a disappointing result.
He had/has this coaching 'class' that transcends the sport.
I was overjoyed in 2008 when it was announced that he was hired by the Golden Bears. I took the day off, rushed to Berkeley and attended the inaugural press conference.; was even more overjoyed a few days later to learn that he had moved to Contra Costa county from the lower Peninsula. A sign that he really was done with County Club U.
Looking back over the 6 seasons, no surprise to me of the results he achieved for the Bears.
I wish you well, Mike. Thanks.
:cry:

Yes. I wished he would have gone out with a strong run in March Madness.

The weather in the bay is NOT happy about the Monty retirement news. Ominous.

Agreed. Thanks Monty, you're a great coach and brought us some good times, great bounce after your predecessor.

Best Cal BB coach since Newell. It was a delight to watch his teams play offense after so many years of looking like we had no offense.

:Lindsay:bear:

we haven't heard from LMMT. I assume he's thrilled.

Agree that it's a sad day for Cal men's basketball. Monty was the best Cal head coach since Pete Newell and returned our program to respectability. He will be missed. Best wishes to Mike for a long, healthy, and rewarding retirement. Thank you, Mike.

MilleniaBear;842299021 said:

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Speaking of which....which players are tied to MM the most and thus potential transferees?

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Zero.

It is a sad day, but I'm doing my best to remember the good times the program has had in recent years. Fun stuff.

:Monty

Bearprof;842298989 said:

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But best wishes to Monty. I enjoyed watching his teams and hearing his analysis.

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Sad?

Why would I be sad about a guy who has had a great career realizing that the time has come to enter the next chapter of his life? I say celebrate the good he did for us, forget about not quite reaching the brass ring we were hoping for, and hope the program starts growing again. We were clearly stagnating and needed an injection of life.

I celebrate Monty's tenure, even if I was a little disappointed we didn't do as well as Stanford did at the end of his run with them.