Yahoo Finance Northern Illinois fires longtime coach Mark Montgomery after 1-7 start
After just eight games this season, Northern Illinois has opted to move on from longtime coach Mark Montgomery.
The school announced that it had fired Montgomery on Sunday after a decade with the program. The Huskies have gone just 1-7 so far this year under his watch, and fell to Bowling Green 68-42 on Saturday.
“We thank Coach Montgomery for his commitment to NIU and his efforts to advance NIU men’s basketball over the last 10 seasons,” Northern Illinois athletic director Sean Frazier said in a brief statement. “We wish him the best in the future.”
Montgomery, 50, took over at Northern Illinois in 2011, which marked his first head coaching job in college basketball after previously serving as an assistant coach under Tom Izzo at Michigan State.
Montgomery finished with a 124-170 overall record with just two winning seasons. The Huskies finished last season 18-13 overall and tied for first in the West division of the Mid-American Conference.
The program’s lone win this season came against Chicago State, which announced last month that it was canceling the rest of its season due to the COVID-19 pandemic after an 0-9 start.
Northern Illinois assistant Lamar Chapman was named the team’s interim coach to replace Montgomery through the end of the season. Frazier said the university will conduct a national search at the end of the season to find the team’s next head coach.
More from Yahoo Sports:
