March 17, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

A Tradition Renewed

by Rick Eymer

It was only a few weeks ago, when the Stanford men's basketball team was undefeated and ranked No. 1 in the land, that head coach Mike Montgomery made a guest appearance - live via satellite - on The Best Damn Sports Show Period.

The show's panel of celebrity hosts, which included actor/sports groupie Tom Arnold, first wanted to know how Stanford was able to reach its lofty status. With that done, Arnold had one final question for Montgomery:

"Hey, Coach," Arnold barked. "I'm going to be at the Final Four. Maybe we can hang out together and talk."

Replied Montgomery, in his best deadpan delivery: "I hope I don't have time to talk to you."

Montgomery, of course, wasn't being rude. Just realistic. If he has time to talk to Arnold, then he won't be coaching. And there is nothing better for a coach than plying his trade at the Final Four.

Montgomery will be coaching in his 10th consecutive NCAA tournament this week, his third as the No. 1 seed, when the top-seeded Cardinal (29-1) travel to Seattle to meet No. 16 Texas-San Antonio (19-13) in the first round on Thursday night. The winner will face either No. 8 Alabama (12-12) or No. 9 Southern Illinois (25-4) in the second round Saturday.

In the bottom half of the bracket is No. 2 Connecticut (27-6), which eliminated Stanford last year in the second round, and No. 3 North Carolina State (20-9).

The Cardinal's 10th straight appearance in the Big Dance is a streak unparalleled in Stanford men's basketball history. It also makes for lofty expectations every year. While Montgomery is used to winning - he has won over 68 percent of the games he has coached in his 26-year career - he has certainly never coached to this level before in his career.

"I think we expect to get there every year," said Stanford sophomore point guard Chris Hernandez. "It's never easy but I think everybody - ourselves, the fans, everyone at Stanford and in the basketball world - expects us to be there every year. It'd be a huge disappointment if we weren't."

Even as Montgomery has taken Stanford to the NCAA tournament in 12 of the 18 years he has been at the helm of the Cardinal program, and even as he has coached teams to winning records in 25 of the 26 years he has been a college coach, there is always some lingering doubt.

"It's very difficult," said Stanford junior All-American forward Josh Childress. "There are teams in this country who play well all season and maybe lost a few games who won't make the tournament. Teams like Oregon and California, who are really good teams, but who maybe had a few unlucky breaks."

That one losing season in 1992-93, when Stanford finished 7-23 and won just two conference games, helps to point out just how difficult it is to maintain a high-level program year after year -- especially at Stanford, where academic requirements were one of the major reasons Montgomery's predecessor left.

"It's not easy to stay on top of your game," said Stanford junior center Rob Little. "It means the system is working, and they do a good job of recruiting."

Stanford went to the NCAA tournament twice in Montgomery's first eight seasons, though the Cardinal qualified for the National Invitation Tournament four other times, winning the NIT title in 1991.

Until Stanford reached the NIT tournament in 1988, here was the summary of the school's postseason history: the 1942 NCAA championship.

Until Montgomery put together winning records in the past 11 years, no Cardinal coach ever had more than six winning seasons in succession. The legendary Howard Dallmer, the playing hero of the 1942 team, coached Stanford to winning records every year between 1962-67.

Stanford had nine straight winning seasons between 1918-26, but six different coaches contributed to the streak and none won more than 15 games in any season.

After nine straight losing seasons, in fact, Stanford fans were so darn glad just to be competitive, they hated to see Dr. Tom Davis leave the school in 1986 after four years and a 58-59 mark.

If he couldn't produce a consistent winner at Stanford, who could? Davis, considered one of the nation's top recruiters, bemoaned Stanford's stringent academic qualifications which kept out intelligent, talented players.

For Montgomery, it became even more of a challenge. He started winning right away until stumbling in that 1992-93 season.

"Before every season we set goals and don't take anything for granted," said Little. "We try to take the season by steps beginning with the preseason. We're always hopeful of getting to the NCAA but we know we have to play it to the end."

While Montgomery always had talented players, what seemed to be missing in his early years was a smart, savvy point guard who could bring it all together, and run Montgomery's complicated offense.

Brevin Knight, when he arrived on campus as a freshman in the fall of 1993, rewrote the description of a Stanford point guard. Knight helped establish the winning tradition that stands on the verge of something extraordinary.

With Knight on board, Stanford went from an NIT appearance to its first NCAA Sweet Sixteen appearance. By the time Knight was a senior, he was surrounded by talented players and he knew how to keep them involved.

When it was Arthur Lee's turn the next year, he was more than ready. Stanford went to the Final Four and just missed going to the championship game following to an overtime loss to Kentucky.

Current point guard Chris Hernandez, who Arizona coach Lute Olsen calls Stanford's most valuable player, is a point guard in the Knight mold - a good, tough-minded decision-maker who can also create his own offensive opportunities.

"You have to credit the coaching staff for the ability to make it 10 years in a row," said Childress. "It shows you how good the coaches are. Coach Montgomery is a great teacher of the game. I've learned so much about the game of basketball from him. If you learn the game the way it's supposed to be played, and you learn to play with purpose, it's inevitable you're going to be successful."

Nobody associated with Stanford basketball assumes anything with it comes to success. Last year, after the Cardinal program lost three of its top players to the NBA (Casey Jacobsen, Curtis Borchardt) and NFL (Teyo Johnson) and its projected starting point guard (Hernandez), expectations hit rock bottom - and Stanford still won.

"It was hard last year because people didn't expect us to go," said Little. "We had to battle back and grind it out last year. We won a lot of games in the last five minutes. We had real question marks coming into this season. Would Childress be back? Would Justin (Davis) stay healthy? Would Chris' back hold up? No one expected the chemistry, the way this club came together. That's been the real staple - being unselfish and teamwork."

Little said that chemistry began during the offseason, when the team began hanging out together and not just playing basketball. There would be the team dinners, and the bowling functions in addition to the physical conditioning.

"You think March, but it's still November and you haven't beaten anyone yet," said Little. "Not a lot of teams have a chance to go to the NCAA championship, or even to fathom that. We all start off with the hope of having a good year. As the season progresses you realize you have something special going. We realized we were in it together."

That certainly has been the case this season as the Cardinal put together a 26-game winning streak to start the season - tying Oregon State's 26-0 start in 1980-81 as the last Pac-10 team to accomplish that. Stanford went 17-1 in the Pac-10, coming within a final regular-season loss of becoming the first conference team to complete an 18-game league season undefeated. And, with a 29-1 record heading into the NCAA tournament, the Cardinal are assured of the fewest losses in school history (The 2000-01 team went 31-3).

No other Stanford team ever has accomplished these feats. Yet, the players know their work is far from over. Prior to the Cardinal heading into the Pac-10 tournament, Little said it was time to start a nine-game winning streak. Now, the season is down to six NCAA tournament games.

If all goes as planned, Stanford will play two in Seattle and two in Phoenix before heading to San Antonio for the Final Four. It's the kind of schedule that no follower of Stanford men's basketball would have expected only a decade ago.

Now, however, it is almost expected. That shows not only how far the program has come, but that it has remained. The Big Dance is starting and Stanford expects to be on the floor until they turn out the lights.

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