| | By Andy Katz
ESPN.com
STANFORD, Calif. -- Mike Montgomery's flirtation with any job outside of Stanford is over, long over.
Montgomery is at his last head coaching job. He's 53 and he's in his prime. Stanford athletics director Ted Leland gave him a five-year extension this summer, which has the option to be extended even further in three years.
|  | | Mike Montgomery has taught Stanford how to win. |
Montgomery might add more time and the choice will likely be his to make again.
"This is where I want to be," Montgomery said Sunday during ESPN.com's preseason tour. "I wanted to make sure I could take care of my family and we have. This is where we want to live."
No basketball coach has done what he has at Stanford. Montgomery wanted to build the Duke of the West. While he doesn't have a national title, he does have a Final Four appearance in 1998. But more importantly, he's turned the Cardinal into a consistent Pac-10 title contender and a threat to be No. 1 again after reaching the mark during last season for the first time in Cardinal history.
Montgomery, named the Naismith coach of the year in 1999-2000, has turned his attention to getting Maples Pavilion remodeled. The antiquated facility is one of the top homecourts in the country with its shaking floor and overbearing students.
But the seats are hard, the bathroom facilities are a fire hazard at halftime -- not to mention a medical concern to the announcers trying to get their bathroom breaks in five minutes while they compete with hundreds of fans on the lower level -- and the concessions are simply weak.
Montgomery got the first draft of plans from an architect and flatly sent them back. They weren't bold enough. Montgomery wants to do to Maples what he has done to the program and staff -- constantly upgrade.
To anyone who says academics and athletics can't coexist in big-time college basketball, well they're not paying attention to Stanford. The Cardinal has their flaws, but they aren't short on talent. They have three potential first-round draft picks on this team in Jarron and Jason Collins, and Casey Jacobsen. A year ago, center Mark Madsen went No. 29 in the NBA draft to the Lakers.
The coaching staff is as experienced as any in the country. Montgomery's top two assistants are former head coaches Blaine Taylor (Montana) and Tony Fuller (Pepperdine and San Diego State). Taylor rejoined Montgomery after playing for him in the late '70s. Taylor left Montana on his own. Fuller wasn't a successful head coach, but he is in his element as a top recruiting assistant.
Stanford basketball has become a machine, one that continues to click because of Montgomery's masterful direction. Montgomery is closing in on 300 wins in 14 seasons at Stanford (288), and shouldn't have a problem reaching 500 over the next few years (442) in 22 seasons overall at Montana and Stanford.
Money isn't as much an issue for him anymore as the university has made sure that the cost of housing in the Bay Area doesn't drive him away like other faculty and coaches on campus.
All the talk about keeping a coaching tradition in the family at North Carolina, Duke, Indiana and now Arizona the past few months should include Stanford. Montgomery has defined Stanford basketball the past decade and he deserves to keep his own legacy going anyway he sees fit.
He's not bigger than Stanford. No coach could be on the Farm, not even Bill Walsh in football. But Stanford basketball has never been more stable, nor near this level.
Montgomery will have logged nearly 20 years when he's through, possibly longer. In a time when few coaches can last more than five, Montgomery's tenure at Stanford will likely be remembered as one of the finest times in the school's history.
Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com. | |
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