After spending 18 years at the helm of the program across the Bay and two years in the professional ranks, former Stanford and Golden State Warriors coach Mike Montgomery has accepted the Cal men's basketball head coaching position.

The 61-year-old coach, whose name is well-known across the country and particularly in Northern California, was introduced by Athletic Director Sandy Barbour on Saturday morning.

"The man we are introducing this morning as our head men's basketball coach really needs no introduction," Barbour said. "This region is quite familiar with him, the basketball world certainly knows him, and certainly the Cal family is quite acquainted with his experience, skills and talent. Boy, are we."

Boasting an impressive track record-Montgomery owns a 547-244 (.692) overall collegiate record and went 25-12 against the Bears with the Cardinal-the veteran coach signed a six-year contract with Cal on Friday. Later that evening, he met with the players, to whom the news came as a surprise.

Montgomery now finds himself in the interesting position of coaching his former rival team, but said it did not deter him from wanting to take the job.

"It's really unusual that a guy would have an opportunity to work in two of the premier institutions in the country," Montgomery said. "It just happened to be 35-40 miles apart. It's more about trying to do at Cal maybe what I've done in the past. Trying to build a quality basketball program, build on a foundation that they have, and try to win basketball games. It's no more complex than that."

If Montgomery is able to approach at Cal what he accomplished at Stanford, it will bode well for the Bears.

Between 1986-2004, he helped the Cardinal to 16 postseason appearances, four regular-season conference titles and the 2004 Pac-10 Tournament crown.

As Stanford's winningest coach and a four-time Pac-10 coach of the year, Montgomery was also the recipient of the John R. Wooden "Legends of Coaching" Lifetime Achievement Award, joining an elite group that includes Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Lute Olson, Denny Crum and Roy Williams.

"The numbers speak for themselves," Barbour said. "Five hundred forty-seven wins, 12 NCAA berths-10 consecutive. A Final Four. Multiple-time winner of national and Pac-10 Coach of the Year. NBA experience. USA Basketball experience. All-Americans. Academic All-Americans. NBA products. The list goes on."

Although Montgomery has been away from coaching for two years, his high expectations have not changed.

"Our job is to get this thing to the top half (of the Pac-10), get this thing headed toward conference championships, get this thing to the NCAA consistently. And doing it the right way," he said.

"I want to win. I've never really done a lot of losing, at least at the college level. I've got a little more patience perhaps. What I don't have a lot of patience for ... are careless mistakes, a lot of patience with a lack of effort, a lot of patience with selfishness-the same things I've always felt and that won't change."

The players, who found out Friday morning, are welcoming Montgomery with open arms.

"I was surprised, then relieved that we had someone in place," forward Theo Robertson said. "Very excited. He's a tremendous coach that we have here. I'm looking forward to working with him."

Montgomery, who turned down a few other coaching offers to come to Berkeley, said he is optimistic about next year's team, but acknowledged that much of that success will depend on whether Ryan Anderson will return for his junior campaign. Montgomery said recruiting Anderson to stay will be one of his priorities.

"If everybody stays intact-that wasn't very subtle, was it-we should be pretty good," Montgomery said.

"We've just got to do the same things I've always done: We've got to play sound basketball, we've got to be very good defensively, we've got to win the rebounding war, we've got to take good shots, we've got to have guys who play for one another. That's the way I've always done it and that's what we'll do here."

Montgomery will be back from San Antonio on Tuesday to meet with each player individually and begin hiring a staff, which will include his son John.

Tags: MIKE MONTGOMERY