On Monday, the U.S. Basketball Writers Association named Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery a finalist for the Henry Iba Award, coming one step closer to proving that good work doesn’t go unnoticed even in the Pac-10.

Montgomery is one of 10 finalists for the award, which is given annually to the Association’s national coach of the year. He and Utah State coach Stew Morrill are the only two finalists whose teams aren’t currently in the AP Top 25.

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Well the Cal men’s basketball team is heading off to play UCLA and USC, and along with them goes basketball beat writer Andrew Kim. Before Kim jumped on a plane for LAX, I caught up with him to see what he thought about the Bears getting off their recent snide.

Among utmost importance for the Bears is the status of point guard Jerome “Bulldog” Randle. Cal’s leading scorer was injured towards the tail-end of the Oregon State game and was seen limping from time-to-time against Oregon two days later.

Next up for Randle is the task of trying to handle Darren Collison. The Bruins’ speedster is expected to be a first round pick and would be difficult for even a healthy “Bulldog” to contain let alone one with an iffy hip.

As Kim and I discuss, coach Mike Montgomery may be forced to play Jorge Gutierrez for extended blocks of time given Randle’s situation. Given Gutierrez’s recent performance last weekend, such an occurrence will be a wild card for Cal as there is no telling how the freshman will react with the spotlight on him in Pauley Pavilion.

Musings of a Moose, Episode 2, Part 1
Musings of a Moose, Episode 2, Part 2

I’m sure there was a bit of concern when Trent Johnson accepted the job down at LSU. Why, you ask? Well, because new Cal head coach Mike Montgomery did spend 18 years at Stanford, winning them conference titles and getting them to a Final Four.

So when the current Cardinal coach bolts, I’m sure there has to be some anxiety amongst the Bears community that Monty will renege on his contract with Cal.

And because Montgomery knows that the rumor mill will be working full force after the Johnson announcement, the savvy veteran felt compelled to release a statement through the Bears athletics department. (Click here to read more…)

As I’m sure you’ve all heard, Sandy Barbour has pulled off yet another great hire in former Stanford and Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery. This comes as a bit of a surprise—in the week since Ben Braun has been fired, names such as Denver Nuggets assistant Mike Dunlap, Washington State coach Tony Bennett, Villanova coach Jay Wright and Pitt coach Jamie Dixon have oft been mentioned as leading potential candidates. St. Mary’s coach Randy Bennett and Nevada coach Mark Fox were also possibilities.

But none would’ve been as perfect of a fit as Montgomery is for the job. He is a track record of success at the college level, he has coached in the NBA (albeit not so successfully), he can compete with the Lute Olsons and Tim Floyds to lure recruits, and he has the name to generate the type of excitement for the program—both within the Bay Area community and on the national stage—that has been absent for years.

Whether Montgomery will have actual success here remains to be seen—he is a grind-it-out, controlling, defensive-minded coach that will be very unlike anything the Bears are used to. Jerome Randle for one won’t be too pleased—if he thought he couldn’t play his type of ball in Braun’s system, he hasn’t experienced anything yet. Regardless, in terms of rejuvenating the program, Montgomery is pretty much perfect.