"I don't know, what do you think?" she responded.

Journalists typically don't like a question being answered with a question, except, as in this case, when it provides an answer.

No one - not current or former Stanford players or current or former Stanford administrators or current or former students - seems to have a firm grip on what awaits Montgomery in his first visit to Stanford as Cal's basketball coach.

But they are all curious. All except Montgomery, who seems genuinely unconcerned about the reception he'll get.

Nothing like the vitriol that greeted Louisville coach Rick Pitino in his return to Kentucky seven years ago seems to be in store, but no one is certain Montgomery will avoid the boos and get showered with appreciative applause either.

"I'd like to see him get a standing ovation when he's introduced and heckled the rest of the way home," said Portland coach Eric Reveno, who played for Montgomery in Montgomery's first three seasons at Stanford and spent seven seasons as a Stanford assistant under Montgomery.

At this time last year, Montgomery was employed by Stanford, with a desk in the athletic department just down the hall from the basketball office. He looked in on Stanford's practices from time to time.

On Saturday, he will operate from the visitor's bench in a rivalry game against Cal.

"It's just weird," VanDerveer said.

Not disloyal. Not enraging. Just weird.

Very few current Stanford students were around when Montgomery coached the Cardinal, and they figure to respond to Montgomery as they would to any high-profile Cal coach.

"It's like Dean Smith coming to Cameron," said Stanford Daily reporter Haley Murphy.

Certainly, the Sixth Man Club, Stanford's wise-cracking student section, will come up with something.

"I hope it's clever," Reveno said, "because there is some rich material there."

But the Sixth Man Club targets every incoming opponent, especially when it's Cal.

Several current players had preliminary recruiting contact with Montgomery in high school, but none gave his commitment to Stanford while Montgomery was coach.

"I remember the day I made my official visit to Stanford was the day he got the Warriors job," senior Lawrence Hill said.

To them, Montgomery is a Stanford icon who showed up at practice occasionally. They have no emotional response to his return.

"That's a fan thing," Hill said.

The longtime Stanford supporters are the ones who might feel betrayed.

"It's more of a personal thing for them," said Stanford Daily reporter Jacob Johnson.

Stanford fans are fairly passive, as fans go, and are not prone to loud personal attacks. Besides, Montgomery made the Cardinal a national power when it seemed impossible. In 1976, Dick DiBiaso was named Pac-8 co-coach of the year for leading Stanford to a 5-9 conference record.

Before Montgomery arrived, Stanford had not been to a postseason tournament since 1942. In his 18 seasons at Stanford, Montgomery took the Cardinal to the postseason 16 times, including 12 NCAA Tournament berths, and the Cardinal entered the NCAA Tournament No. 3 in 2000, No. 2 in 2001 and No. 1 in 2004.

Montgomery's move to Cal was a more explosive issue when he was hired in April.

"I know a lot of the former players were upset," said Kenny Ammann, the coach at Concordia University in Irvine and a player for Montgomery at Stanford in 1990 and '91. "Anywhere but Cal."

Back then, his return to Maples Pavilion seemed destined to be an engrossing, chaotic event. Now, it's hard to say.

Kris Weems, the No. 2 scorer on Stanford's 1998 Final Four team, remembers grousing with several former teammates in April about Montgomery's move to the Cardinal's archrival

"Now," Weems said, "I don't think I have any reaction to him coming back here."

E-mail Jake Curtis at jcurtis@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page D - 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle