Mark Montgomery gets a 2nd chance.

https://x.com/jonrothstein/status/177555...qsyn5erw5A

(04-03-2024 11:22 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Mark Montgomery gets a 2nd chance.

https://x.com/jonrothstein/status/177555...qsyn5erw5A

Holy smokes. They were 1-31 last season. Didn't their women's coach get fired for abuse as well?

Looks like the guy who was Head Coach their previously had a great track record and success at every place but there.

Wasn't he the guy who said you have to jump to the right situation, because not everything can be fixed. In reference to how hard of a job NIU was. Detroit Mercy makes NIU look like the big leagues...

(04-03-2024 12:50 PM)HawaiiToNIU Wrote:  

(04-03-2024 11:22 AM)HuskieDave Wrote:  Mark Montgomery gets a 2nd chance.

https://x.com/jonrothstein/status/177555...qsyn5erw5A

Holy smokes. They were 1-31 last season. Didn't their women's coach get fired for abuse as well?

Looks like the guy who was Head Coach their previously had a great track record and success at every place but there.

Wasn't he the guy who said you have to jump to the right situation, because not everything can be fixed. In reference to how hard of a job NIU was. Detroit Mercy makes NIU look like the big leagues...

I know a lot of people have no hope for the NIU men's basketball team but man...if there ever was a program that seems like it is beyond recovery...it might be Detroit Mercy.

Monty went there after being let go from NIU as an assistant and then went back to MSU so he probably knows the AD and had very few options to get a 2nd shot. But you would think there would be lower level coaches who would take it on as a shot if that was the only opportunity at a D1 program they were getting.

Maybe not. It seems like an easy hire, AD knows Monty, Monty is desperate to run another program, Monty is a Michigan guy so maybe he has some connections in recruiting, so let's do it.

I'm not overly optimistic he can resurrect that program, but he had a few years at NIU that weren't terrible and had some good recruiting classes so maybe he catches something for like a two year period and can leap frog out of there to something else.

I'm sure Rod Carey will even get a 2nd chance somewhere, even if it's at the FCS level because someone will say let's take Temple off his resume and look at what he did at NIU.

It didn’t work out for Monty at NIU but there is no doubt among basketball coaches that he knows the game of basketball. That doesn’t mean it’ll work as a head coach but no way he played in the Bigten and spent all that time with Izzo and ran his own program he doesn’t know basketball. So they got nothing to lose by hiring him.

(04-03-2024 02:10 PM)CollegeMan33 Wrote:  It didn’t work out for Monty at NIU but there is no doubt among basketball coaches that he knows the game of basketball. That doesn’t mean it’ll work as a head coach but no way he played in the Bigten and spent all that time with Izzo and ran his own program he doesn’t know basketball. So they got nothing to lose by hiring him.

"Knowing the game" and being able to coach it, being able to recruit, being able to teach it, being able to deal with alums, fans, and the media are all another thing. Why don't you use your connections to Monty to get him to agree to a home-and-home series between UDM and NIU?

I agree with everything you said 57 how about that![/align]

Lord have Mercy.

(04-03-2024 04:35 PM)Schaefer Beer Wrote:  Lord have Mercy.

Lol, you win the day

Since 1997 NIU has had 4 seasons within 2 games of .500. He has 3. Going back to 1982, 1 other season.

Since 1997 NIU had 5 winning seasons. He had 3. 5 other seasons back to 1982.

So in his last 7 full seasons, he was 2 games under or better 6 times. A feat accomplished 9 times in the other 34 seasons.

Call it tallest midget it the room scenario or best of the worst, did pretty well comparatively. But then again, he was fired by the “ failure” himself I guess for failing at program with a history of failing.

UDM must like losing.

(04-03-2024 10:49 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  Since 1997 NIU has had 4 seasons within 2 games of .500. He has 3. Going back to 1982, 1 other season.

Since 1997 NIU had 5 winning seasons. He had 3. 5 other seasons back to 1982.

So in his last 7 full seasons, he was 2 games under or better 6 times. A feat accomplished 9 times in the other 34 seasons.

Call it tallest midget it the room scenario or best of the worst, did pretty well comparatively. But then again, he was fired by the “ failure” himself I guess for failing at program with a history of failing.

While he has been more successful than Burno, the only reason he had two winning records is because he played easy non-conference schedules. Montgomery only had one winning record in conference play despite playing in the easier MAC West division. Generally, Montgomery teams finished 4th or worse in the West division.

(04-03-2024 10:58 PM)holybovine Wrote:  UDM must like losing.

They are super good at it.

(04-04-2024 04:32 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(04-03-2024 10:49 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  Since 1997 NIU has had 4 seasons within 2 games of .500. He has 3. Going back to 1982, 1 other season.
Since 1997 NIU had 5 winning seasons. He had 3. 5 other seasons back to 1982.
So in his last 7 full seasons, he was 2 games under or better 6 times. A feat accomplished 9 times in the other 34 seasons.
Call it tallest midget it the room scenario or best of the worst, did pretty well comparatively. But then again, he was fired by the “ failure” himself I guess for failing at program with a history of failing.

While he has been more successful than Burno, the only reason he had two winning records is because he played easy non-conference schedules. Montgomery only had one winning record in conference play despite playing in the easier MAC West division. Generally, Montgomery teams finished 4th or worse in the West division.

Note to RandyFens: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power of statistics to bolster weak arguments, "one of the best, and best-known" critiques of applied statistics. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent's point.

Note to epasnoopy: Boy did you hit the nail on the head.

Going through the Burno disaster, I no longer have the hatred of Monty. He is certainly no savior, but I’m thinking the problem must be more with the institution - NIU Athletics itself. Year after year and coach after coach have seen miserable failure, or bare mediocrity at best. Maybe all the attention has been paid to the football program at the expense of the basketball program. I can’t pin down the exact reason, but that loser of an AD needs to step up and hire a coach who can get the players and properly coach them. However, I have also come to the realization that with the transfer portal beckoning players, we may never be good again - except by accident. How sad is it to be a Huskie basketball fan?

(04-04-2024 05:04 PM)Dog Fan Wrote:  Going through the Burno disaster, I no longer have the hatred of Monty. He is certainly no savior, but I’m thinking the problem must be more with the institution - NIU Athletics itself. Year after year and coach after coach have seen miserable failure, or bare mediocrity at best. Maybe all the attention has been paid to the football program at the expense of the basketball program. I can’t pin down the exact reason, but that loser of an AD needs to step up and hire a coach who can get the players and properly coach them. However, I have also come to the realization that with the transfer portal beckoning players, we may never be good again - except by accident. How sad is it to be a Huskie basketball fan?

For comparison sake, Western Illinois got a new coach this year and went 21-12 overall and 13-5 in their new conference and played in the conference semifinal.

Is the OVC below the MAC?

Yes.

By a substantial amount?

I'm not so sure.

Before they hired Boudreau, under Jeter the program went from a 5 win program (Wright's last season), to a 7 win program (Jeter's first year), to a 16 win season, to a 16 win season and then to a 21 win season (Boudreau's first year).

And I'd love to know how much better Macomb and WIU is than DeKalb and NIU because in the span of two coaches over 4 years, they either increased or maintained their win total each season culminating a damn good season for a program that has been recently really bad ever since the departure of everyone's favorite basketball coach.

Western's positive is the flip side of Northern's negative: Paul Bubb is a helluva AD. He hired the FB and MBB coaches, successful or well on the way. Managed the move from MVFC/Summit to OVC. Western's budget is a thinner shoestring than Northern's, and its enrollment is 1/2 way down from yore, but they're planning 1-2 minor sports adds to line up better with OVC. They need to replace one or two coaches; Bubb will do what needs be done. Nice guy; not looking around all the time for another job. Already spiced promotions and latest fundraiser was best ever. Fan activities surround sports events. Out in the community.

One p.s.: 'Necks MBB can draw 1,000+ (roughly 20% of undergrad enrollment) to a home game. Can NIU draw 20%?

(04-04-2024 04:36 PM)uiniu57 Wrote:  

(04-04-2024 04:32 AM)epasnoopy Wrote:  

(04-03-2024 10:49 PM)randyfensfanclub1 Wrote:  Since 1997 NIU has had 4 seasons within 2 games of .500. He has 3. Going back to 1982, 1 other season.
Since 1997 NIU had 5 winning seasons. He had 3. 5 other seasons back to 1982.
So in his last 7 full seasons, he was 2 games under or better 6 times. A feat accomplished 9 times in the other 34 seasons.
Call it tallest midget it the room scenario or best of the worst, did pretty well comparatively. But then again, he was fired by the “ failure” himself I guess for failing at program with a history of failing.

While he has been more successful than Burno, the only reason he had two winning records is because he played easy non-conference schedules. Montgomery only had one winning record in conference play despite playing in the easier MAC West division. Generally, Montgomery teams finished 4th or worse in the West division.

Note to RandyFens: "Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase describing the persuasive power of statistics to bolster weak arguments, "one of the best, and best-known" critiques of applied statistics. It is also sometimes colloquially used to doubt statistics used to prove an opponent's point.

Note to epasnoopy: Boy did you hit the nail on the head.

In 7 subsequent years since 5 win seasons, -12 in MAC

Previous 12 seasons in MAC, -59.

Yeah, stats don’t lie.

The WIU coach had previous winning head coaching experience at a junior college. It is not that hard to hire someone with winning head coach experience. You simply place and ad with a sentence "candidate must have previous head coaching experience" somewhere in the ad......7 words of magic.


The only recent assistant coach that I can think of, that has been successful (without having been a head coach) is coach Devries at Drake, who is headed to West Virginia.

(04-04-2024 08:08 PM)jjj Wrote:  The WIU coach had previous winning head coaching experience at a junior college. It is not that hard to hire someone with winning head coach experience. You simply place and ad with a sentence "candidate must have previous head coaching experience" somewhere in the ad......7 words of magic.


The only recent assistant coach that I can think of, that has been successful (without having been a head coach) is coach Devries at Drake, who is headed to West Virginia.

<Resisting the urge to go through all 351 coaches to check on this claim...and we all know how much I like to make lists...>