Montgomery won't get his wish: Cal Bears at Stanford Cardinal revolves around him

Monty may get frustrated with the amount of attention
on him this week, but he'll have to get his team ready
just the same (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

It's been six years since the Golden Bears men's basketball team has garnered a national ranking.  It's been nearly 50 years since the Cal Bears men's basketball team has started off the season this hot.  Even though it's been nearly five years since Montgomery was a head coach for a Cal versus Stanford matchup, but this is just the first time that he'll be on the blue and gold bench.

Montgomery, in front of a full press room, tried to make the Bears' upcoming contest with their most bitter rival all about "the kids".  Sorry Monty, this is all about bragging rights for Bears Backers, and you are the biggest reason that Cal fans can gloat over those wearing Cardinal colored clothing.

While nobody can say with any authority that this Bears team wouldn't have achieved the same success with former head coach Ben Braun, many already believe that they have succeeded due to the magic that Mike Montgomery has brought from across the bay.  Even his players have attributed much of their success to the preparation and confidence that he has brought with him to a program that had been an afterthought when projecting their finish in the Pac-10 this season.

This is not about me. This is about our basketball team and about their basketball team. The rest is just peripheral stuff. This is going to be a tough, tough road matchup against a team that has played extremely well at home, against a team that provides a little bit of a different challenge because they are they are quick and athletic and they play four out. So we're going to have to figure out a way to try and match up with that. I'll tell them, "Guys, look, we have a job to do here, and I appreciate your thought process, but let's get out there and do the best that we can." It would be a heck of a win for us.
- Montgomery when asked how he'll address the players on his return to Maples Pavilion

On part of this I can agree.  It IS about the team, but these players know the history you had at Stanford Mike.  They know that by beating Stanford, it would please you more than beating any other team.  They remember last season, and not too long ago this season, the lack of interest in them and the program.  So while come game-time it will be about the players on the court, the game in and of itself is all about how Mike Montgomery fares at Maples with the team wearing the 'wrong' colors.

Of course, the big question on everyone's mind was about Montgomery and his thoughts on what it would be like returning to a place that he called home for 18 years as the coach of Cal:

Don't know - haven't been there yet. Honestly, it's a tough road game. And other than the fact that you walk back in and you see a lot of people that you know, I don't see too much more. None of these kids on my team played against me, none of the kids on Stanford's team that I coached, either, so its history. We know that we need to prepare for a tough opponent and a hard road game.

With the success he's having at Cal this season, one has to wonder if this is just 'old hat' to a coach that has coached great teams in the past - specifically his great Stanford teams.  He was asked if this team did remind him of any of those great teams:

Not really because we always had big guys. I cannot think of a single time when we were not big-guy oriented and heavy. We always had a security blanket of big guys. We always had big guys and that was kind of our trademark. We didn't start off the year with that as what we felt was our strength. It turns out that we've been adequate at the bigs. Kamp has been good defensively. Jamal has had some good games, Jordan has been very steady for us, and we've gotten some mileage out of that. But I really don't see any team that I could compare this to that way.

Montgomery may be able to skirt the subject surrounding his emotions going up against his former team, but there are some things he won't be able to avoid.  There is no way he'll be able to avoid a tough Stanford crowd, probably as excited to greet him as Cal fans are for a victory.  When asked about what kind of reception he was expecting from the Cardinal crowd, he responded in a matter-of-fact way that only he knows how:

I don't know. I can think of 18 years of Cal coming into Maples. The crowd was not overly receptive. There will be seven thousand people in there and they're pretty much going to treat Cal as they've always treated Cal. The fans might have a dilemma. They may be stuck between how loud to boo or you may get courtesy claps and then go straight to boos.

I don't know if I'd expect too many courtesy claps, but with rivalries like this one, it's safe to expect the unexpected.

We're only getting started on our coverage of this very important game for the Cal Bears!  Keep checking back for more!