Detroit Mercy hoops was trending up. Now, it's banned from postseason

There are various punishments the NCAA can levy for falling below the APR benchmark, including scholarship reductions, practice reductions and postseason bans, or any combination of the three.

This marks the third time in a decade that Detroit Mercy men's basketball has been penalized for falling below the APR minimum score, the only program in any sport in the state of Michigan to be penalized for APR more than once. For 2017-18, the program was hit with a postseason ban and practice reduction. The ban was served in 2020, under head coach Mike Davis. Then, for 2023-24, Detroit Mercy again fell below 930 (just barely, at 929), and received a practice reduction from the NCAA, again under Davis, but served this past season under Montgomery.

The first two years of this current four-year rolling window, Davis still was coaching at Detroit Mercy. Davis and Detroit Mercy mutually agreed to part ways in the spring of 2024, with one year left on his contract. After two seasons as an assistant coach at Memphis, Davis recently was named head coach at Mississippi Valley State.

Vowels, in an interview with The Detroit News, declined to lay the blame solely on Davis. In his letter to donors, he wrote, "Head coach Mark Montgomery is committed to the Titans, and the coaching staff has been fully invested in academic monitoring and success since their arrival last year."

Detroit Mercy also remains committed to Montgomery, 56, who recently agreed to a contract extension that now runs through the 2030-31 season. Financial terms were not disclosed, as Detroit Mercy is a private school, but Vowels and Montgomery confirmed the extension to The News.

The extension was finalized even as Detroit Mercy already was informed of the forthcoming penalties from the NCAA regarding the latest APR report. Detroit Mercy has known about the NCAA's findings for weeks, and has gone through the appeal and waiver process, but the NCAA ultimately stuck with its initial ruling.

Detroit Mercy's players and recruits were informed of the NCAA's findings and of the upcoming postseason ban, and most of them stuck with the program. The Titans will return six players from last season's roster, among the most among any Horizon League team, and its recruiting class, including four freshmen and two transfers, has stuck with its commitments.

Detroit Mercy athletic director Robert Vowels shared news of the men's basketball team's postseason ban in a letter to donors Monday morning.

For 2026-27, with the NCAA Tournament no longer a possibility, Montgomery said there still will be plenty of achievable goals, among them winning the program's first Horizon League regular-season title since 1999.

"We're playing a preseason tournament. We're still going to have a good nonconference schedule. No matter what, March Madness for our conference is still, you're guaranteed one game," Montgomery told The News. "So, then, the body of work of the 30 other games ... and still, education is valued here, and relationships, and development. So, that's how we're going to weather this."

As part of its APR program, the NCAA offers support to schools who fall short of the 930 minimum, and Detroit Mercy, Vowels said, already has instituted plans for improvement, as it did previously, when it went from 909 in 2021 to 946 in 2022.

Is the NCAA's Academic Progress Rate outdated?

But Vowels and Montgomery also joined a chorus that's becoming louder among programs throughout the country in their belief the APR has become outdated in this era of so much player movement, with the transfer portal and NIL. Eddie George, formerly head football coach at Tennessee State who now is at Bowling Green, has been among the most prominent coaches to call the NCAA's current APR standards "antiquated."

Vowels said the APR still has some merit, but also said the new era requires some evolution in how the NCAA calculates. In the last two years, Detroit Mercy has been docked points because of five players, including two that transferred from Detroit Mercy to junior college, one player who while planning to transfer out simply stopped going to class, and another player who was athletically eligible but couldn't secure his visa. Just a few such instances can swing the pendulum from over the APR line to below it in sports with small rosters, like basketball.

Traditionally, programs punished by the NCAA for low APR scores have been non-power conference schools, and it's not getting easier, as recruitment is harder than ever, with so much roster turnover and so much competition for players, and so little time to vet the player athletically, let alone personally and academically. Coaches and administrators liken the current climate to "speed dating."

"It needs to be more modernized to what we're dealing with right now. That's just the bottom point," said Vowels, who prior to arriving at Detroit Mercy was commissioner of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, and also has worked for the NCAA and Big Ten. "APR has become obsolete with how we now do business."

That said, none of that changes the fact that while times certainly are changing in college sports, the academic rules are the rules, and until they change, the onus remains on programs to be in compliance, and the overwhelming majority or programs across the country make the grade every single year — including the 16 others on Detroit Mercy's campus. Only one other Detroit Mercy team ever has been hit by an APR penalty, men's lacrosse, in 2009-10, before that program had even around for four years, but there was no postseason ban.

Out of more than 2,000 annual reports in the APR era, only three other schools in Michigan ever have had an APR penalty — one each for Eastern Michigan men's basketball, Central Michigan football and Western Michigan football. None have come in the last 15 years, and none led to a postseason ban.

Michigan, Michigan State and Oakland never have been hit with an APR penalty, in any sport, according to a search of the NCAA's APR online database, which is updated through the 2023-24 reports.

UDM head coach Mike Davis watches his players during men’s basketball practice at University Detroit Mercy in Detroit on January 30, 2024.

Detroit Mercy's men's basketball team is set to graduate four players off last season's team, including Legend Geeter, Jared Lary and Ayden Carter, as well as Orlando Lovejoy, who is taking summer classes, while exploring professional opportunities. Those four earning their degrees will help Detroit Mercy's future APR score. Worth noting, were they to sign a pro playing contract in lieu of earning a degree, that wouldn't hurt an APR score.

Vowels said academics are strong on a whole at Detroit Mercy, which graduates more than 90% of its student-athletes. Vowels said that last fall, 16 of 17 program's had a collective GPA of 3.0 or higher, and more than half (155) of the 300 Titans student-athletes were on the Dean's List. Some programs even had perfect 1,000 APR scores. And he said he is seeing progress with men's basketball, too, despite the latest penalty.

"He's building a culture here," Vowels said of Montgomery. "When we do get back in '27-28, we're ready to go and compete again for a Horizon League championship, the Horizon League tournament and the NCAAs.

"This is a bright future. I can actually say that."

What is the future of Detroit Mercy men's basketball?

Detroit Mercy men's basketball, which was picked to finish ninth in the league before last season and ended up finishing tied for third, also will not be eligible to play in the Horizon League tournament in 2027. The Titans would be able to play in a postseason tournament that is not affiliated with the NCAA.

The Titans last made the NCAA Tournament in 2012 — a drought that now will live on for at least one more year.

The NCAA releases its APR findings every May, so Detroit Mercy will have to show progress when the next report is released in 2027 or risk the postseason ban being extended. If Detroit Mercy still is below the 930 threshold but is making year-over-year progress, the NCAA sometimes has accepted a waiver request to lift a postseason ban.

Even amid the postseason ban, of course, there was no guarantee that Detroit Mercy's trajectory was going to continue upward in 2026-27. The Titans are losing several standouts from last season, including leaders Lovejoy and Geeter, who are out of eligibility, as well as rising junior guard TJ Nadeau, who transferred to Tulane, and forward Ryan Kalambay, who transferred to St. Bonaventure. Nadeau was expected to transfer regardless of Detroit Mercy's NCAA punishment, receiving an NIL contract in the six figures. Kalambay made a later decision.

Montgomery has been to the NCAA Tournament several times as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Michigan State, under Tom Izzo, over two separate stints. But he's never made it as a head coach, in nine-plus seasons at Northern Illinois and now two seasons at Detroit Mercy. He still hasn't gotten over the loss to Wright State in Indianapolis in March.

"It's still right there," Montgomery said last week, during an interview at Calihan Hall. "It stings."

And, now, the road to ease that pain just got a little rockier — and a little longer.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Detroit Mercy men's basketball hit with postseason ban from NCAA