College Coaches Find Woes in Pros

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">NEW YORK - Mike Montgomery of the Golden State Warriors is the latest coach looking to prove that college success can carry over to the NBA. But based on his first season, and NBA history, he has a lot of work to do.

Montgomery's rookie season has been filled with growing pains, for him and his team. The Warriors are 18-41 heading into tonight's game against the 76ers at the Wachovia Center. They are in last place in the Pacific Division, 271/2 games behind the Phoenix Suns.

Not many coaches have succeeded in making the transition from college to professional basketball. For every Cotton Fitzsimmons and John MacLeod, who succeeded on both levels, there are plenty of Rick Pitinos, John Caliparis and Jerry Tarkanians, who didn't have nearly the results in the pro game that they had in college.

Montgomery is the only current NBA head coach to come directly from the college game. The 58-year-old coached Montana for eight seasons and Stanford for 18; his career coaching record at the schools is 547-244. Montgomery said the jump to the NBA has been an eye-opening experience.

"It is really different," Montgomery said before the visiting Warriors fell, 115-99, Sunday to the New York Knicks. "Just the routine, the people you are dealing with on a day-to-day basis."

Drawing X's and O's is the same at just about any level of coaching. But the interpersonal relationships are drastically different in the NBA from the way they are in college, 76ers coach Jim O'Brien said.

O'Brien is a former college head coach at Wheeling (W.Va.) Jesuit and the University of Dayton; he also was an assistant at the University of Kentucky. He was an assistant with the Knicks and the Celtics before he earned his first NBA head coaching job; he replaced Pitino on the Boston bench.

"You have to, in a sense, partner up with players at the pro level more than at the college level," O'Brien said. "You have to make that adjustment in your managerial style and how you lead guys."

In college, what the coach says usually goes; there is little debate. In the NBA, there is much more give and take, with the emphasis on giving for coaches.

"In college, you are kind of in charge of everything," Montgomery said. "You are in charge of recruiting, fund-raising, the booster club. And you are clearly in charge of your team."

Then, laughing, he added: "I'm not sure what you are in charge of here."</div> Source