NIU Hires Former CMU assistant Mark Montgomery

[psc2009]

Montgomery has a long history at Michigan State, but he also spent four years coaching at Central Michigan and has interviewed for a couple of MAC head coaching jobs. He didn't get them though. Supposedly part of the reason was that he thought he was too good for the MAC.

For NIU's sake I hope that either A) that's not true or B) he's a more humble coach. Northern Illinois has all the tools to be a successful basketball school (perfect location, great facilities, good budget). It just needs a good coach.

http://themacdaily.com/index.php?news&nid=642

[JoeFalcon]

So Montgomery finally gets his shot. This name has been thrown around for just about every mid-major job (and even some low-major jobs) in the Michigan/Ohio/Illinois area for at least 5+ years. Izzo has been pushing him hard to AD's and basketball people and you wonder why it took this long. His assistants have a hit-and-miss record as head coaches with some recent flameouts so it should be interesting to see how he does.