When Rob Judson was named the new NIU men’s basketball coach, Ryan Marks knew his time was up as a Huskie assistant.

The six-year Huskie assistant made his push to stay as one of Judson’s assistants but knew his chances were slim to none. And with the hiring of Mike Shepherd two weeks ago, Marks saw his chances slipping away even more.

“Coaches have a pretty good idea of who they want to hire before they get a particular job,” Marks said in March. “Now that [Judson] has the job, all the people that are interested in this job will come forward. I am sure there is going to be a lot of good candidates, and he is going to have to see who he is most comfortable working with.”

Marks knew the day would come when his stay at NIU would be over — he just didn’t know when it would be.

“This is one of the things where if you are in coaching long enough, this is going to happen,” Marks said. “You always pick up the paper and see this type of thing happens to a particular program, and you empathize with them and always wonder what it is like to be in that position.”

Marks knew when he was a point guard at Latin High School his days were limited as a player, so he wanted to be a coach.

The 29-year-old started coaching after he graduated with a public relations degree at the University of Southern California. He joined the Division II school Central Missouri State bench in the 1993-1994 season and left CMSU for NIU two years later.

“I found out coaching was probably around the same time that playing was something that I didn’t do very well,” he said. “Not that many colleges are going to want a slow, poor-shooting point guard. But I loved basketball, and I thought I had a great understanding of the game.”

Marks’ future as a college coach is a cloudy one, he said. The Chicago native tried to latch onto the UNLV staff of Charlie Spoonhour, who goes back with Marks to their days of coaching at Central Missouri State, but Spoonhour brought in his staff from St. Louis.

His other option was to go back to his roots, coaching at the Division II level. Marks has applied for the head coaching job at Bemidji State University in Minnesota and is one of more than 100 candidates for the job. Bemidji State went 10-17 last season, and coach Dave Gunther retired after the season.

Even though his chances for becoming a coach at the college level might be small, Marks said things are too early to say that coaching next season is out of the question. Marks has made a lot of phone calls and sent a lot of resumes just so his name is out in the public, but he has a feeling he might not show up at the places he applied next season.

“I am considering a lot of things and trying to get involved,” Marks said. “There are a lot of people who want to coach. Despite that fact, I have been at this level for quite a while. I am just going to be fortunate enough to have a job somewhere.”

Even though Marks might not be a part of the program next year, his heart will be with the Huskies. And wherever life may lead him, NIU will be with him for the rest of his life.

“People have asked me what is going to happen to this program,” he said. “I know the type of people that are in this program right now. But I think coach Judson is going to do a wonderful job here. What is going to happen here at NIU is that in the next couple of years, the basketball program is going to be great, and they won’t have a bigger fan than me.”