DETROIT (WXYZ) — Last season Detroit Mercy didn’t get their first win until February 14th. As it stands in late November they’re already at 3. So how does that turnaround happen? A complete overhaul of the culture.
“I just knew the potential Detroit mercy had. I grew up in this area, I’m from Inkster. I went to Southgate Aquinas I played high school basketball in this gym,” said Mark Montgomery
Rebuilding a program in today's world of college athletics isn’t an easy task even at the highest of levels,
“When you get the job late April and you got to recruit you got to sign 10 players on the roster, we have 9 freshmen, so we have a young team," added Montgomery
But Men’s Basketball Head Coach Mark Montgomery says it starts with changing the culture.
“When you get a group of guys that they know they’re going to get playing time and they can help right the ship as we say…our guys are just playing hard playing with energy and we are making some shots,”
And an argument can be made that energy comes directly from Montgomery himself
“Softspoken wouldn’t be the word. I lose my voice every day in practice,” he said
“Yeah, he’s definitely a loud coach, very verbal, but that’s how he gets his points across, that's how he gets us going. You just have to hear what he’s saying not how he’s saying it,” said junior guard Jared Lary.
Now the college basketball season is a grind, and we're still only in November, but Montgomery wants to make sure he keeps a balance of discipline and fun
“After every win, we already have the music going last, coach got an ice bath shower as soon as he walked in. So, every time we win, large margin small margin it’s going to be fun,” added Lary
“I told this team we're going to be a lot better come January, February than we are right now in November, December. Our young guys by then to me they're going to be sophomores our sophomores are going to be juniors and they're going to know all our philosophies,”
Now the ultimate goal for this program is to make a return to the NCAA Tournament, a place they haven’t been since 2012, but Montgomery said they’ll take it day by day to get back to that point.
