It’s been a tough couple of weeks for Stanford basketball. After both Brook and Robin Lopez decided to turn pro, legendary Cardinal coach Mike Montgomery decided to leave the Athletics Department to take over archrival California’s basketball team. The icing on the cake was this past Wednesday, when it was reported that current Stanford coach Trent Johnson would leave the Farm for LSU.

In the span of 10 days, Stanford lost four of the most crucial pieces to its men’s basketball program. As I outlined last week, there are players on the team (and a few coming in next fall) who can help make up for the loss of the Lopez twins’ production. It won’t be easy — still, it’s doable.

But who will lead the team? Who will keep Stanford basketball at its current, high-achieving level? And who will recruit the nation’s top players? Johnson leaves a gaping hole at the top of the Cardinal program — finding the right replacement will no doubt be Athletic Director Bob Bowlsby’s top priority until the situation is resolved.

Who, then, shall take the reins? I have identified four top candidates for the job, plus one dark horse, based on their recruiting and program success, as well as their Stanford and west coast ties: Gonzaga’s Mark Few, Washington State’s Tony Bennett, Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon, Nevada’s Mark Fox and San Diego’s Brad Holland.

Mark Few

Few coaches have been as successful as Mark Few, who, in his nine years as Gonzaga’s head coach, has made the NCAA Tournament each year and won the West Coast Conference eight times, all en route to an outstanding 236-60 record.

Few was considered an early candidate for the Stanford job in 2004, when Montgomery left the Farm to coach the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Even though Few was mentioned for many top coaching positions, he repeatedly turned them down to remain at Gonzaga; however, according to the Spokesman-Review, the Stanford job was one of the only ones Few had shown interest in.

Throughout his time in Spokane, Few has been able to turn mid-level recruits into top players — Dan Dickau and Adam Morrison, both overlooked by top-tier programs, became first team All-Americans.

Few is currently under contract with Gonzaga until 2015, although there is a buyout option in place.

Tony Bennett

Bennett is a young coach who has already made his mark: he took over a fledging Washington State program in 2006 and immediately turned the Cougars into one of the top teams in the Pac-10. He won National Coach of the Year honors in 2007 and took WSU to the Sweet 16 this year.

He was considered a candidate for both the Cal and Indiana jobs just a few weeks ago, although both jobs went to other coaches. Rumor has it that he was unhappy in Pullman and was looking for an exit — his top two players, Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver, are graduating this fall. Despite this, he told the press at the beginning of the month that he will stay at WSU for at least one more year. Nevertheless, he is currently in the discussion for the Oklahoma State position.

He should be a top choice in the Stanford debate, too.

Jamie Dixon

Dixon is seemingly an odd choice for this list: he’s the only east coast coach mentioned, and he already has a top job. But Dixon is a protege of UCLA coach Ben Howland and was born and raised in California — before becoming an assistant to Howland at Pitt in 1999, he had coached exclusively on the west coast and in Hawaii. His name has come up in a number of west coast jobs, such as Cal this year.

Since taking over for Howland at Pitt, Dixon has been remarkably successful, advancing past the NCAA first round in all but one of his five years. He is a strong recruiter and has been successful in that regard against the Big East’s (and other conference’s) best coaches.

Mark Fox

Fox took over for Johnson when he left for Stanford in 2004 — he has subsequently won the Western Athletic Conference regular season championship in each of his four years at the Wolfpack’s helm.

He has established himself as a good west coast recruiter and, like Few, has been able to craft his young players into some of the nation’s best — Nick Fazekas (a Johnson recruit) was named WAC Player of the Year three times under Fox.

Brad Holland

In a group of top coaches, Holland is a dark horse candidate. He is the only one without a job currently — having been fired by San Diego last year — but has the most head coaching experience of the five, and is the winningest coach in the school’s history.

Additionally, as the coach of the Torreros for nearly a decade and a half, he established himself as a premier west coast recruiter — nearly every player on the team that beat Connecticut in this year’s NCAA Tournament was recruited by Holland. He also worked under more stringent academic restrictions at San Diego, much like he would have to do at Stanford.