NCAA Dodges This One

Less than two months ago, at a news conference introducing him as the coach of the Golden State Warriors, Mike Montgomery said: “I’m sure this is a surprise to some of you, maybe a shock.”

A shock because after nearly two decades at Stanford, Montgomery was a college basketball giant, his legacy chiseled in stone, the sort of coach who has traditionally spurned the NBA.

The shock has worn off fast.

An even bigger name from the college ranks, Mike Krzyzewski, spent the weekend weighing an offer from the Lakers and, though he declined on Monday, the fact he would consider leaving Duke -- where he has a lifetime contract, where the court bears his name -- implies a shift in the landscape.

Jim Calhoun, coach of defending national champion Connecticut, goes so far as to muse about “a deep unrest” among college coaches.

The game has changed. More young players are leaving school early for the NBA draft. More teenagers are skipping college altogether, jumping from high school to the pros.

“You get a kid who you think will change your whole program, make you a national powerhouse, and he leaves,” USC Coach Henry Bibby said.

Last month, USC saw highly touted recruit Robert Swift slip away to become a first-round choice by the Seattle Sonics.

“That makes it tougher to win in college,” Bibby said. “It hurts.”

Montgomery left Stanford shortly after losing junior Josh Childress to the draft, a blow to a team with national championship hopes.

At Duke, which had been immune to this phenomenon for many years, star freshman Luol Deng and blue-chip recruit Shaun Livingston also opted for last month’s draft. Livingston was selected fourth overall by the Clippers.

People around Krzyzewski guessed these developments had to affect a coach who has amassed more than 600 victories and three national championships with the Blue Devils.

“I’m sure that’s frustrating when you recruit a kid and they don’t show up, and you recruit a kid and they come for one year and leave,” Duke Athletic Director Joe Alleva said last week.

From another perspective, this dynamic might be causing NBA general managers to take a closer look at college coaches.

For many years, the two games were thought of as oil and water.

College was about motivation and teaching. The pros required a businesslike approach, dealing with millionaire egos on the court and billionaire owners in the front office.

But with more and more teenagers entering the pro ranks, the NBA might need a little more of the college approach.

“It’s a new breed of players,” said Bibby, who worked his way through pro basketball’s minor leagues before taking over at USC. “The college coach would be able to relate to these younger players.”

Another piece of the puzzle -- an emerging picture of successful college coaches willing to switch -- is money.

Montgomery reportedly got a four-year, $10-million deal from the Warriors.

The Lakers reportedly offered Krzyzewski $8 million a year. That figure would have dwarfed his present contract and endorsements, most recently reported at $1.3 million annually.

“A lot of college coaches make good money, but that’s certainly a factor,” said Lon Kruger, whose coaching career has taken him from high-profile NCAA jobs to the Atlanta Hawks and back to college at Nevada Las Vegas.

And the NBA doesn’t have anything like the NCAA’s labyrinthine manual, with its rules on recruiting and team meals and how a coach may conduct practices.

“I think all that stuff rolled into one gets you down,” Calhoun said.

Still, Kruger and others warn, the NBA has its own set of drawbacks.

The pro season can be a grind, longer and more tightly packed, leaving less time for practice. Older players can be considerably less open to coaching.

John Wooden, who turned down NBA offers during his legendary career at UCLA, said: “Most college coaches like to teach, and there’s not that much teaching that goes on in the pros.”

The mind-set differs in another critical way.

“You have to learn to deal with losing,” said University of Memphis Coach John Calipari, who had an NBA stint with the New Jersey Nets. “You don’t have any two- or three-loss seasons in the pros.... In fact, you may lose two or three games in a week’s time.”

Away from the court, pro coaches answer to bosses who can be more fickle than the average university president.

“You’d better be sure you’re hooked at the hip with the owner and management, so you’re sure that you’re on the same page,” Kruger said.

So college coaches thinking about the NBA have numerous factors to consider.

On one side is a list of successful college coaches -- including Kruger and Calipari, Rick Pitino and Leonard Hamilton -- who have struggled in making the transition to the pros.

On the other is a fresh memory of Larry Brown showing it can be done, becoming the first coach to win NCAA and NBA championships when his Detroit Pistons defeated the Lakers.

Moreover, Brown did it with a team that exhibited some college-like characteristics -- a devotion to teamwork and defense.

At a Monday afternoon news conference in Durham, Krzyzewski talked about his decision to remain at Duke.

He spoke of family -- three grown daughters and grandchildren in the area -- and his close association with the university, where he carries an additional title of special assistant to the president.

He spoke of “the great game of college basketball.”

Maybe it wasn’t an appropriate occasion to address the state of his profession but, given the current set of frustrations, his athletic director sounded relieved.

“Today’s really a happy day,” Alleva said. “It’s a great day for college basketball.”

Times staff writers Bill Dwyre and Robyn Norwood contributed to this report.