MSU basketball coach Tom Izzo and his staff have spent the last five weeks searching, interviewing and checking backgrounds of coaches from all over the state and into Ohio.
The search finally came to an end Monday when Izzo named former Spartan point guard Mark Montgomery as the Spartans’ No. 3 assistant coach. He is filling a vacancy left by Mike Garland, who was promoted to the No. 2 assistant spot after Stan Heath took the head coaching job at Kent State on April 19.
Montgomery played point guard for MSU from 1989-92 and has been an assistant coach at Central Michigan for the past four years.
Montgomery said his transition to coaching at MSU will be a smooth one because he is already familiar with the system.
“A lot of the same plays they ran when I was here, they’re running them now,” Montgomery said. “Tom has tweaked a few things and changed some things. I think I’m walking into a situation where the foundation is pretty solid so I’m just going to have to pick up on some loose ends and clean some things up.
“It’s just learning his terminology and the words (Tom) uses - what he expects from me, that’s kind of the biggest thing - where I’m gonna fit in all of this.”
Garland, speaking of his previous position, said the biggest thing Montgomery will have to adjust to is the NCAA rule that prohibits the third assistant coach from recruiting away from campus.
“He’s kind of trading jobs with me,” Garland said. “Where (at Central Michigan) he was out on the road recruiting, he’ll be spending more time with our players, working more along the lines of individual workouts and doing self-scouts on our team - spending time with players and dealing with their academic and whatever social needs or campus needs they might have.”
But Garland said that adjustment won’t be a problem because the players already know Montgomery - especially the players he recruited.
“A lot of our players know who he is because he was a heck of a player here,” Garland said. “He was on the 1989 Big Ten Championship team and he’s quite a player himself. He’s dropped in from time to time and not only made himself (known) as a coach at Central Michigan but as an ex-Spartan and that’s important. So our guys are well-aware of who he is.”
The MSU coaching staff brought Montgomery on board not only because of his status as an alumnus but also because he is an Inkster native who has connections in Detroit.
“He’s a Detroit-area player himself,” Garland said. “He knows a lot of (Detroit) players and coaches personally. He can get on the phone and still talk to coaches and continue to cultivate the relationships that he already has down there.
“Some of the relationships that he has will be better than the ones that we’ve already established and, of course, that’s going to help us to gain some ground.”
The in-state recruiting battle with Michigan is one Montgomery is optimistic about MSU continuing to win.
“We’re just going to have to out-work them like we have been doing,” Montgomery said. “I think our success over the past three years puts us in front of Michigan. I think the atmosphere up here is better than Michigan. I know I’m being a little biased because I played in it, but if you go to Breslin and you go to Crisler (Arena) there’s a big difference.”
But Montgomery said the success that gives MSU an edge over U-M will also result in people having greater expectations of his performance.
“It’s going to be pressured, no doubt about it,” Montgomery said. “After three straight Final Fours, expectations are very high around here, but that’s one of the challenges I look forward to - that’s why I wanted to come here.”
