[Leftcoast]

Two thoughts: 

1) Regarding the Stanford players coached by Florida's coach question.

Coaching includes recruiting, assembling a staff, player development, gameplan preparation and, yes, in game coaching. Only one or perhaps two of these elements are addressed by this question.  A successful Stanford coach will need to excel at all of them.

2) Regarding, Which is worse, inconsistency or going down when you face someone good in the tournament ?

Those PAC 10 championships, Sports Illustrated covers, top 10 rankings and consistent high seeds felt pretty darn good to me.  As did visiting San Antonio for the Final Four.  But the first mattered most.  Competing for your conference title seems to be consistently under rated around here, perhaps because we haven't done it in a while.

[Leftcoast]

Two thoughts: 

1) Regarding the Stanford players coached by Florida's coach question.

Coaching includes recruiting, assembling a staff, player development, gameplan preparation and, yes, in game coaching. Only one or perhaps two of these elements are addressed by this question.  A successful Stanford coach will need to excel at all of them.

2) Regarding, Which is worse, inconsistency or going down when you face someone good in the tournament ?

Those PAC 10 championships, Sports Illustrated covers, top 10 rankings and consistent high seeds felt pretty darn good to me.  As did visiting San Antonio for the Final Four.  But the first mattered most.  Competing for your conference title seems to be consistently under rated around here, perhaps because we haven't done it in a while.

[teejers1]

I'll answer Outsider's question this way:  I absolutely think if Bo Ryan had coached this team for all of this year (let alone last) then Stanford would have beaten Dayton.  Would they have beaten Arizona?  Don't know - as Kaminsky was such a vital part of that game and Stanford has no Kaminsky counterpart.  However, a fully-realized Dwight Powell is an awfully strong weapon . . .

P.S.  Nobody thinks Wichita had a bad year, even though they were a #1 seed that lost in the second round.  That's because they were matched up with a brutal 8/9 seed in Kentucky (the Wildcats finally played up to their abilities).  Same thing with that Stanford team that lost to UNC in Birmingham (a UNC team that I believe made the Final Four) - even though I am still bent that Monty didn't play the hot hand, Ryan Mendez, more that game.  Just a bad/unlucky matchup.  You could find other "bad luck" aspects to other disappointing Stanford NCAA losses under Montgomery.  Playing Gonzaga in Seattle (and w/out Jarron Collins) comes immediately to mind, and the Elite 8 loss to Maryland was just a tough game where Maryland played very well.  [The bad luck about that one comes in the form that Maryland should have lost its opening game, but escaped with a buzzer beating prayer from the corner].  Really, the loss to Alabama is THE ONE that really stinks/hurts, as Stanford just fell apart amidst a blizzard of pro-'Bama whistles.  [The ass-kicking by Kansas was no fun, but hardly an upset.  What made that one distasteful was the insistence of playing a certain PG while Childress sat . . .].  The point is that as disheartening as many of those games were, rare was the case where you could say "Stanford just didn't play anywhere close to its ceiling."  That's my take, anyway. 

[teejers1]

I'll answer Outsider's question this way:  I absolutely think if Bo Ryan had coached this team for all of this year (let alone last) then Stanford would have beaten Dayton.  Would they have beaten Arizona?  Don't know - as Kaminsky was such a vital part of that game and Stanford has no Kaminsky counterpart.  However, a fully-realized Dwight Powell is an awfully strong weapon . . .

P.S.  Nobody thinks Wichita had a bad year, even though they were a #1 seed that lost in the second round.  That's because they were matched up with a brutal 8/9 seed in Kentucky (the Wildcats finally played up to their abilities).  Same thing with that Stanford team that lost to UNC in Birmingham (a UNC team that I believe made the Final Four) - even though I am still bent that Monty didn't play the hot hand, Ryan Mendez, more that game.  Just a bad/unlucky matchup.  You could find other "bad luck" aspects to other disappointing Stanford NCAA losses under Montgomery.  Playing Gonzaga in Seattle (and w/out Jarron Collins) comes immediately to mind, and the Elite 8 loss to Maryland was just a tough game where Maryland played very well.  [The bad luck about that one comes in the form that Maryland should have lost its opening game, but escaped with a buzzer beating prayer from the corner].  Really, the loss to Alabama is THE ONE that really stinks/hurts, as Stanford just fell apart amidst a blizzard of pro-'Bama whistles.  [The ass-kicking by Kansas was no fun, but hardly an upset.  What made that one distasteful was the insistence of playing a certain PG while Childress sat . . .].  The point is that as disheartening as many of those games were, rare was the case where you could say "Stanford just didn't play anywhere close to its ceiling."  That's my take, anyway. 

[76lsjumb]

Which is worse, being inconsistent and never knowing whether a performance is going to be good or bad, or knowing you are almost always going to be able to beat mediocre teams but also realizing the moment you get up against someone really good (as you will in the tourney) you will most likely go down? I think it is debatable.

After kicking this question around in my mind for a couple of days, I decided to rephrase it in slightly more concrete terms:  Over the past six years, would I have been happier with K.al's record/performance during that span or ours?  I think I would have to go with K.al's.

[76lsjumb]

Which is worse, being inconsistent and never knowing whether a performance is going to be good or bad, or knowing you are almost always going to be able to beat mediocre teams but also realizing the moment you get up against someone really good (as you will in the tourney) you will most likely go down? I think it is debatable.

After kicking this question around in my mind for a couple of days, I decided to rephrase it in slightly more concrete terms:  Over the past six years, would I have been happier with K.al's record/performance during that span or ours?  I think I would have to go with K.al's.