The Stanford and Michigan hoops teams are nowhere near as strong as they were at their recent peaks. Some part of me wants Stanford to hire Mike Montgomery back, but much like Ty Willingham in football, that ship has sailed and those periods may represent peaks to which subsequent Stanford coaches and teams can only aspire. Given Stanford’s academic standards, it’s pretty tough to consistently assemble a basketball team that can contend for the Pac-10 title or a football team that can finish with a winning record and secure a bowl berth.
Despite the decline in the program since Monty left, I’m still satisfied with Trent Johnson. He’s only in year 2, has them playing well this year and seems to be able to recruit OK. The real proof will be when Monty’s players are all gone and Johnson stands on his own.
Michigan is another story. They’ve been an NIT team for a while, literally and figuratively. The post-Ed Martin fallout and incompetent Brian Ellerbee set the program back, but what excuses does Tommy Amaker have? Crappy Crisler Arena isn’t enough to excuse away the lack of results on the court. Last night’s blown lead at home to Iowa is just another of many such frustrating games. Time to can Tommy and move on to someone else.
UPDATE: Michael Rosenberg of the Free Press has a good column on the impact of last night’s loss on Amaker’s job security.
In other news, Nick Saban continues his stellar off-season PR campaign by slurring Cajuns. Maybe he and Joe Biden can get together to compare notes.