Trent Johnson to LSU? That came out of left field, didn't it. Well, maybe not.

You could easily explain it off by looking at the money. Look what Stanford's AD had to say about the situation.

"LSU notified me that they wanted to talk with him this morning as I was leaving Tampa" following the women's Final Four, Bowlsby said. "The position probably pays twice what ours does so I expect he feels he has to listen. Trent has not informed me that he has accepted another position."

Let's look a little closer at the situation. Mike Montgomery was just hired to coach at Stanford's arch rival, California. Montgomery, who was an advisor in the Stanford athletic department, was a successful coach at Stanford until he made an unsuccessful attempt to coach in the NBA. Obviously, he has friends in the athletic department, or he wouldn't be working as an advisor for Stanford.

Now fast forward a couple of seasons. Let's just say that Montgomery turns around the Cal program. Don't you think Johnson would be compared to Montgomery every step of the way? Who would want to deal with that, especially when you can go somewhere else and earn more money.

To me, this situation was eerily similar to the Tubby Smith - Rick Pitino situation. Smith, who admittedly had underachieved his last few years at Kentucky, would always be compared to Pitino.

Or consider another ironic example. Les Miles has and will be compared to Nick Saban.

If a former coach is successful somewhere else, especially somewhere close, fans are going to assume the current situation would be better had the old coach still been there.

So good move by Johnson. I don't think any LSU fans will be comparing him to John Brady.

One other theory. He could have left because of that annoying tree.

*** Side note, after I wrote this, I found this article. I guess I'm not way off base.