A couple of former Tom Izzo assistants are leading their own Division I programs this season, and both are having different types of seasons.
Dwayne Stephens is struggling at Western Michigan with an 8-16 record after three straight years of 12 or fewer wins. It feels like his time might be running out in Kalamazoo, and you can’t be too surprised seeing as his teams have seemingly gotten worse each season.
However, for Mark Montgomery at Detroit Mercy, there’s been a moderate amount of success, given the circumstances. He took over a dead program coming off a 1-31 season and immediately led the Titans to eight wins in his first year. In year, two, he’s off to a sub-.500 start, but he’s still improving the program as the Titans have a winning conference record for the first time since 2021-22.
After a huge win over the Horizon League’s first-place team on the road on Thursday night, Detroit Mercy has a winning conference record at 8-7.
. HC @Coach_Monty_ after the Titans big 77-74 road win at Wright State, knocking off the first-place Raiders #DetroitsCollegeTeam #HLMBB ⚔️🏀 pic.twitter.com/b2ieNfiJmt
— Detroit Mercy Men's Basketball (@DetroitMercyMBB) February 13, 2026
The Titans have improved to 11-13 on the year which is the first time they’ve recorded over 10 wins since the 2022-23 season. There’s a good chance that Detroit Mercy finishes the year with a .500 record, or better, seeing as the next three games are at home against beatable teams, and the final two games will be tough on the road, ending with Oakland.
Montgomery’s win over first-place Wright State on the road was his best of the season.
Mark Montgomery’s rebuild is ahead of schedule
Turning a program around that went 1-31 the season before Montgomery took over cannot be an easy task for anyone, let alone a guy who hadn’t been a head coach in four years.
Yet Montgomery is doing a heck of a job at Detroit Mercy.
In his first season, he found a way to win eight games which was a whopping eight times more than the previous season, and there’s a chance he doubles that number in 2025-26. Detroit has 11 wins with five games left and three of those should wind up as wins. Plus, the conference tournament could yield a victory or two.
Winning 15-plus games in year two of the rebuild was not expected, but you know fans have to love this rapid turnaround even though the Titans are a year or two away from NCAA Tournament contention.
It’s good to see at least one former Izzo assistant doing well at his new job.