Mark Montgomery, Detroit Mercy men's hoops coach, lands contract extension

Detroit — Detroit Mercy head men’s basketball coach Mark Montgomery has agreed to a contract extension on the heels of his team’s late-season run, when the Titans made the Horizon League championship game and came close to snapping the school’s NCAA Tournament drought.

Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, as Detroit Mercy is a private institution. The new contract is for five years, running through the 2030-31, according to a source with knowledge of the situation.

Detroit Mercy head men’s basketball coach Mark Montgomery has agreed to a contract extension.

Montgomery, 56, just completed his second season at Detroit Mercy, and led the Titans to a 17-15 record. Detroit Mercy lost to Wright State in the Horizon League title game, 66-63, in a game the Titans led by as many as 12 points. Detroit Mercy was looking for its first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2012.

Detroit Mercy, led by the return of point guard Orlando Lovejoy, saw a nine-win improvement from Montgomery’s first season, when the Titans were 8-24. The year before Montgomery’s hiring, Detroit won one game, leading to the exit of head coach Mike Davis.

Montgomery previously was head coach at Northern Illinois for 10 years. He had two stints as an assistant coach under Tom Izzo at his alma mater, Michigan State, sandwiched around his run at Northern Illinois, where he was 126-179 before being fired in 2020-21.

He joined Davis’ staff briefly at Detroit Mercy in 2021, before rejoining Izzo’s staff as director of recruiting, then an assistant.

Davis, 65, went on to become an assistant at Memphis before his hiring last week as head coach at Mississippi Valley State, the fifth head-coaching job of his career.

tpaul@detroitnews.com

@tonypaul1984

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Mark Montgomery, Detroit Mercy men's hoops coach, lands new contract