University of Detroit Mercy men’s basketball head coach Mark Montgomery has started to put together his coaching staff as he announced that longtime Detroit native LaMonta Stone will join the Titans as an assistant coach.
“I have known LaMonta for a long time and his passion and knowledge of the game will be a great asset to our student-athletes,” said Montgomery. “He is a veteran who has coached at many levels, and his recruiting presence in Detroit as well as nationally will be huge for us.”
A veteran with 30 years of coaching experience at the collegiate and high school level, Stone spent last season as the Director of Basketball Operations at Eastern Michigan, helping the Eagles to their most total and MAC victories since 2019-20.
Prior to EMU, Stone was the head coach at his alma mater, River Rouge High School, from 2014-16 and 2018-21, as well as from 1994-00. He led the Panthers to back-to-back Class B state championships in 1998 and 1999, with both of those teams earning Top-25 national rankings in the USA Today poll. All told, 10 of Stone’s River Rouge teams won district titles and seven were regional champions. Both the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press named Stone the High School Coach of the Year in 1999 after he guided his squad to a state runner-up finish. He also was singled out for the Coach of the Year honor by the Michigan Coaches Association in 1997.
At the college level, Stone has been an assistant at four different universities in the University of Michigan-Dearborn (1991-94), Eastern Michigan (2000-02), Ohio State (2002-04) and Bowling Green (2004-14).
In his first stint with the Eagles, Stone worked under Jim Boone as EMU advanced to the MAC Tournament both years. Stone’s second collegiate position came at Ohio State where he worked under Jim O’Brien. During his two years in Columbus, the Buckeyes competed in the 2003 National Invitational Tournament (NIT).
At Bowling Green, Stone was hired by then-head coach Dan Dakich ahead of the 2004-05 season and worked for Dakich for three seasons. Stone stayed on staff when Louis Orr took over the program in time for the 2007-08 season and his departure at the end of the 2013-14 campaign. During his 10 seasons with the Falcons, the team competed in a pair of postseason tournaments, including the 2009 NIT and the 2011 CollegeInsider.com Tournament (CIT).
As a student-athlete, Stone competed in track and field at Toledo for two seasons before transferring to Michigan-Dearborn and competing in basketball. In high school, he was a three-sport athlete at River Rouge in basketball, track and field, and football.
He completed his bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Wayne State in 1999.
