Northern Illinois University named longtime Michigan State assistant coach Mark Montgomery its new head basketball coach and during his press conference, he said he'll do "whatever it takes" to turn around the program.

I hope so.

Because you can't play the game of college basketball without playing the game, which means developing relationships with sleazy AAU coaches as well as influential entourages and family members.

It's about offering scholarships to 7th and 8th graders.
It's about making things easy for kids to enjoy DeKalb.

I'm guessing after being recruited to play at Michigan State, and being a coach alongside Tom Izzo for so long, Montgomery is aware of just how to do all that.

Will NIU let him do it? For their sake, I hope so. It's the only way he'll be able to turn around that program.