In the biggest press conference at Cal in quite some time, newly appointed men's basketball coach Mike Montgomery looked entirely comfortable wearing a blue and gold tie with a Bears pin on the left side of his jacket.

In fact, he even looked too comfortable. The Stanford legend made it seem like-dare I say it-becoming the Benedict Arnold of the Bay Area was the perfect situation for him.

He addressed reporters often by name, cracking jokes at the same members of the Fourth Estate that flummoxed him so much while with the Cardinal.

He joked that forward Ryan Anderson is living in the master bedroom of his house, a not-so-subtle plea to get Anderson to return to Cal for a season under his tutelage.

More importantly, he wasted no time in calling out the Bears' core of players and challenging them to play with some intensity and toughness.

Only a coach with 18 years of college success and 547 wins would have the moxie, during his first minutes on the job, to risk alienating players that could still transfer out of the program.

"I have an old saying: 'If they don't bite as a pup, they're not going to bite as a dog'," Montgomery said, questioning Cal's work ethic last season. "I don't think sometimes kids realize how much they have to give."

I looked over to see the reaction of point guard Jerome Randle, one of these players who presumably lacked some bite last season. Instead of snickering, Randle stared right at his new coach and nodded his head in acknowledgment.

It seems like the old stogie might be able to get through to some players after all.

Montgomery had a team meeting at Haas Pavilion on Friday night with the returning players and stressed just how much potential Cal has to be great.

Randle ran out of that meeting giddy and fired up, yelling, "Cal's gonna be on a whole new level now."

Having a Pac-10 great as a coach will bring some optimism and excitement to any soul. The fact that he coached the Bears' archrival for so long should not be an issue.

There will be those Old Blues who will be squeamish for a little while seeing Montgomery donning the blue and gold after piercing the hearts of everything blue and gold for so long. I can relate, remembering the day I heard Karl Malone signed with my beloved Lakers after terrorizing them in the playoffs for so long.

But winning will change all that- and quickly.

Montgomery was not named the coach at Cal to make a statement to the Cardinal. He was not named the coach just to help the Bears sell a couple thousand season tickets before sneaking off into the moonlight at midnight with millions of dollars stuffed in his pockets.

Montgomery is here to win, and judging from his admittedly sarcastic comments in the press conference, he seems like he wants to be here for the long haul. His only hesitation about the job, after all, seemed reasonable enough.

"I just wanted to feel like there weren't going to be any explosives or snipers on the way to the Cal office," Montgomery said, only half-jokingly.

So forget all your hesitations about his age (he's still sharper and wittier than most college students) and forget your fears about his Cardinal red allegiance (he's moving his family to the East Bay).

If he can inspire a 20-year-old from Chicago on his first day, chances are he'll do just fine as coach of the Bears.

The British, after all, were quite fond of Benedict Arnold.

Tags: MIKE MONTGOMERY