The latest on the search - Mark Fox and Trent Johnson

Not a lot to report other than scuttlebutt and rumors at the moment. In terms of making direct contact, as of last night based on what I've heard neither Mike Dunlap, Mark Fox, nor Randy Bennett have heard from Cal. That doesn't mean there aren't intermediaries having offline conversations but nothing has risen to the level of a formal conversation.

There may also be conversations happening with some of the long distance prospects like Tom Crean and potentially even Mike Brey, whom Sandy knows well.


My guess at this point is that Cal will land on Mark Fox as the choice to be the next head coach. Fox is young at 38 years old, he's had experience in the Pac 10 as an assistant, he was part of the rebuilding work at Nevada and has accelerated their progress since Trent Johnson left. As compared to Bennett, he is a proven recruiter who can land highly sought after preps and he has dominated his own conference over the past four years. Bennett should get credit for turning around a moribund St. Mary's program but that is far less relevant in my eyes as Cal is not that far down at the moment and the challenges are of a very different nature than what Bennett faced in Moraga. Fox is also a polished and charismatic personality who will play well with the press and alums.

The rumors around Mike Montgomery won't die. Many Old Blues who claim to be in the know believe there is an ongoing conversation happening between Monty and the Bears. The sticking points likely revolve around Monty's choice of assistants, most importantly his insistence that his son inherit the program when he retires and the size of his compensation package.

As I shared below, I don't see the fit with Montgomery and the Bears even without his demand to bequeath the program to his son. I hope this is just hopeful speculation on the part of some of the bigger donors and not substantive.

The one crazy rumor regarding Montgomery that won't go away is the one that involves Trent Johnson. Johnson has but one year left on his deal with Stanford and has been told he will be renewed but by all accounts, Stanford isn't in a huge hurry to get it done. The conspiracy theorists opine that Bowlsby (Stanford's AD) doesn't mesh well with Johnson and would prefer to have Monty come back rather than sign Johnson to a long term deal. Johnson, unlike Montgomery, has gone out of his way to praise Cal to folks off the record, citing the native recruiting advantages and the depth of talent currently on the Bears roster. Johnson feels like a better fit for Cal than for the Cardinal. All of this is a long shot but it could explain the lack of contact between Cal and other candidates and the rumors around Montgomery. It also gets credence from Barbour's recent quote that Cal would need to wait until certain prospects exited the tourney. She said this last week and speculation was that she was talking about Sean Miller (Xavier), but Johnson frankly makes more sense.