By Will Despart
The Sporting Tribune
The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate it’s 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the award ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and the Legends of Coaching Award.
One of the hallmarks of collegiate athletics is a program defining coach, and few coaches in the history of NCAA basketball have meant as much to their respective programs as Mike Montgomery meant to Stanford.
Stanford’s 1998 Final Four berth under Mongomery remains the most significant achievement in the 112-year history of the program. The Cardinal went 30-5 that season and tore through the tournament as the No. 3 seed in the Midwest Region.
That run eventually came to an end at the hands of Rick Pitino’s eventual national champion Kentucky Wildcats, but it still marked the arrival of one of that period’s best teams and a coach in Montgomery whose career achievements earned him the 2004 Wooden Legends of Coaching Award.
Montgomery and Stanford parlayed that 1998 Final Four berth into winning at least a share of the Pac-10 regular season title in the ensuing four seasons. Arguably the best team Montgomery coached at Stanford was the 2000-01 Cardinal, who started the season 20-0 and were ranked as high as No. 2 in the AP Poll before making a run to the Elite 8 as the No. 2 overall seed in the tournament.
Montgomery also produced his fair share of NBA talent during his time at Stanford, including Mark Madsen and Jason Collins. While Stanford lacked the same recruiting resources as powerhouse conference opponents UCLA and Arizona, Montgomery proved that he could develop underrated recruits into NBA-ready players.
In a 2004 profile by the university magazine that detailed his transformation of the basketball program, then-athletic director Ted Leland gave Montgomery the highest of compliments.
“We have a great coaching staff (in the athletics department) and some people would say it’s the best in the country, but I think most of the coaches on our staff would say that Mike Montgomery is the best actual coach we have,” Leland said. “In the old coaching parlance, he can take his five guys and beat your five guys and then take your five guys and beat his five guys.”
Montgomery’s success at Stanford led him to the highest level of the profession in 2004. After 18 years in Palo Alto, Montgomery was hired to be the head coach of the Golden State Warriors. The success he had with Stanford didn’t carry over, however, and he was let go after just two seasons.
Montgomery continued his coaching career in the Bay Area’s collegiate ranks, accepting the head coaching job at Cal ahead of the 2008-09 season. Montgomery coached the Golden Bears through the 2014 season, winning the Pac-10 regular season title in 2010.