[Mick]

That team is one of the most painful memories for me as a Stanford fan. After such a great season filled with big wins, to go out of the tourney the way they did was just depressing. That's pretty much when I got on board the "Monty the Traitor can't win the big games in the tourney and it's time for both parties to move on", boat. I don't harbor the ill-will against Monty that a lot of folks here do, because frankly, his strategy at Stanford had been proved to not be viable come tourney time. I miss the 20+ win seasons and occasional top 10 ranking. But I don't miss the certainty that Stanford would lose to a team with a lower seed in the tournament each year.

Hopefully our Harbaugh/Shaw of basketball is around the corner, ready to win big in season and get it done in the tourney as well.

...but I remember exactly where I watched the Stanford v. Siena game in 1989.  A good friend of mine and I hibernate in a pizza joint in Santa Clara for the first two weekends of March Madness, and I was assuring him that #3 seed Stanford would just wreck $14 seed Siena, but Stanford lost 78-80.

Siena was tough.  They started 1-2, then finished 24-3 over the season.  Their strength of schedule was extremely weak (225th out of 293), but they had the sixth best NCAA record.  They also got to play in their time zone. 

Stanford got into foul trouble (Reveno fouled out, Terry Taylor and Howard Wright had four fouls) and Vlahov had an underwhelming game, 16 minutes and 0 rebounds.

I don't know how you can accuses Monty of systematic underperformance when he also took a team to the Final 4.  The NCAA tourney (and, in fact, any one and done tourney) is going to have its share of upsets.  To the extent that we were upset victims during the latter stages of Monty's career at Stanford is due to the fact that we were frequently a higher seed.

In case you want to relive the pain:  http://vault.ncaa.com/?game=306SR330_s01&seconds=0

[Mick]

That team is one of the most painful memories for me as a Stanford fan. After such a great season filled with big wins, to go out of the tourney the way they did was just depressing. That's pretty much when I got on board the "Monty the Traitor can't win the big games in the tourney and it's time for both parties to move on", boat. I don't harbor the ill-will against Monty that a lot of folks here do, because frankly, his strategy at Stanford had been proved to not be viable come tourney time. I miss the 20+ win seasons and occasional top 10 ranking. But I don't miss the certainty that Stanford would lose to a team with a lower seed in the tournament each year.

Hopefully our Harbaugh/Shaw of basketball is around the corner, ready to win big in season and get it done in the tourney as well.

...but I remember exactly where I watched the Stanford v. Siena game in 1989.  A good friend of mine and I hibernate in a pizza joint in Santa Clara for the first two weekends of March Madness, and I was assuring him that #3 seed Stanford would just wreck $14 seed Siena, but Stanford lost 78-80.

Siena was tough.  They started 1-2, then finished 24-3 over the season.  Their strength of schedule was extremely weak (225th out of 293), but they had the sixth best NCAA record.  They also got to play in their time zone. 

Stanford got into foul trouble (Reveno fouled out, Terry Taylor and Howard Wright had four fouls) and Vlahov had an underwhelming game, 16 minutes and 0 rebounds.

I don't know how you can accuses Monty of systematic underperformance when he also took a team to the Final 4.  The NCAA tourney (and, in fact, any one and done tourney) is going to have its share of upsets.  To the extent that we were upset victims during the latter stages of Monty's career at Stanford is due to the fact that we were frequently a higher seed.

In case you want to relive the pain:  http://vault.ncaa.com/?game=306SR330_s01&seconds=0