Durham takes assistant's job at New Mexico State

The Associated Press

Published October 5, 2008 at 3:36 p.m.
Updated October 5, 2008 at 5:03 p.m.

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BOZEMAN, Mont. (AP) _ Former longtime Montana State men's basketball coach Mick Durham has accepted an assistant's job at New Mexico State.

In 16 years as head coach at Montana State, Durham won the most games (246) in Big Sky Conference history and was the second-longest tenured coach in Bobcat history behind Brick Breeden (1935-54).

But after a 15-15 season in which Montana State lost six of its final eight games, Durham announced his retirement in March 2006.

He stayed away from the game the past two years, managing Bozeman's Super 8 motel and watching daughter Mikaela graduate from Bozeman High and son Casey finish his final two seasons as an MSU guard.

Mikaela is currently a freshman at Montana State.

Casey is working at a Bozeman insurance agency.

"The timing feels right," Mick Durham told the Bozeman Daily Chronicle Saturday from Las Cruces, N.M., home of NMSU. "If I was going to get back into it, this was probably the time to do it. The toughest part is picking up and leaving Bozeman."

Durham was hired by NMSU head coach Marvin Menzies, whom Durham knew from when he recruited Damon Ollie in the late 1990s. Ollie, who became an all-Big Sky forward, played for Santa Monica (Calif.) College when Menzies was an assistant there.

Durham said he doesn't aspire to become a head coach again.

"I always thought I'd come back as an assistant," he said. "I'm intrigued to be in a different conference than the Big Sky. I wanted to stay in the West, in a college town. I was pretty picky if I was going to get back into it.

"I'm really just pursuing being an assistant, to get my foot back in. I don't really have any ambition to be a head (coach) again. This is fine right now."

Durham, 51, was born in Chicago when his father, Lin, a former Bobcat, was in dental school at Northwestern University. When Mick was a toddler the family moved to Three Forks where Lin set up his dental practice.

Mick Durham led Three Forks High to the Class B state championship as a junior in 1974, and the following year he averaged more than 30 points a game and was named state tournament MVP. He was a three-year starter at MSU and is currently fourth on the school's list for career free throw percentage (81.6) and career assists (362).

Durham coached at Shepherd High School from 1980-82 before returning to Montana State and serving as an assistant to Stu Starner for seven seasons. Durham was named head coach of the Bobcats in April 1990.

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