Mark Montgomery spoke for the first time as the men’s basketball head coach at NIU in a virtual press conference on Thursday afternoon.

An assistant to Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo since 2001, Montgomery comes to NIU for his first head coaching opportunity.

The move to hire Montgomery came on Wednesday, hours after a meeting between Montgomery, NIU Athletic Director Jeff Compher and NIU President John Peters.

After being introduced by Chicago Tribune Live host David Kaplan at the press conference, Montgomery spoke at length on the potential he sees in NIU as a Division I basketball program.

“I think [NIU] is a sleeping giant right now,” Montgomery said. “We have a great academic institution, great facilities and great proximity to Chicago. It’s just going to take a great coaching staff… but I think it’s time for NIU basketball to take off.”

Compher announced that Montgomery’s contract will be for five years and $1.5 million; the same figures that former NIU head coach Ricardo Patton agreed to in 2007.

While Montgomery wants to be a recruiting force in Chicago, he doesn’t want to ignore the relationships formed over 15 years of coaching in the state of Michigan. Before going to East Lansing in 2001, Montgomery coached at Central Michigan from 1997-2001. With five years of recruiting experience in the Mid-American Conference, Montgomery can jump right into recruiting for NIU without learning about the level of MAC basketball.

“At Michigan State, you are recruiting the best players in the state, but at the Mid-American level you have to look at a wider range of kids,” Montgomery said. “You have to have a longer list of kids from different states, whether it’s high school or junior college kids.”

In his last year at Central Michigan, Montgomery helped lead the Chippewas to the best one-year turnaround in the history of the MAC. After going 6-23 in 1999-2000, CMU went 20-8 in 2000-2001, capturing the school’s first MAC regular-season title since 1987.

While at Michigan State, the Spartans made three trips to the Final Four, making back-to-back trips in 2009 and 2010. Montgomery said he believes the success of his former teams stemmed from a physical brand of basketball.

“To be successful at this level you have to come out with a certain level of toughness,” Montgomery said. “That’s just something that our team will do.”

While it had been reported earlier in the week that Gonzaga assistant Ray Giacoletti was the Huskies’ top choice, Compher said he believes that Montgomery is the only man for the job.

“We had a lot of interest in this job, but there were a lot of people that look good on the rack but not when you start trying them on,” Compher said. “From my perspective, not only did we get someone that we wanted from the start but we got the best fit for NIU.”