Temple Basketball: Monté Ross named associate head coach

Temple Basketball has named Monté Ross associate head coach under Aaron McKie

Temple basketball made its first official announcement regarding assistants that will be joining the program this year. Monté Ross, former Delaware head coach and Bodine High School standout, was named associate head coach on Wednesday. He’ll join Chris Clark, who is being retained by Aaron McKie from Fran Dunphy’s staff, and more announcements are expected to come this week.

Ross, a guard in his playing days, played his college ball at Winston-Salem State in North Carolina after starring at Bodine High in the Northern Liberties neighborhood of Philadelphia. He has an incredible amount of coaching experience considering his age (Ross turns 49 in August), having coached continuously in the division one ranks from 1993 to 2016. He was on staff at Lehigh, Drexel, and for ten years at Saint Joe’s before being hired to head up Delaware’s program in 2006.

During his ten-year stint with the Blue Hens, Ross led the program to a regular season and tournament conference championship, and brought Delaware to its first NCAA Tournament since 1999 in 2014. He was named the Colonial Athletic Association coach of the year that same season. He compiled a 132-184 record at during his tenure in Newark, and led the Blue Hens to the highest winning percentage in CAA regular season play over a four-season span, stretching from 2011-12 – 2014-15. He was terminated by the school in 2016 after a 7-23 season and replaced by Martin Ingelsby.

Ross was a part of some major moments in Philadelphia college hoops history as an assistant. He was with Drexel when the program won its first ever division one NCAA Tournament game in 1996, when a Malik Rose-led 27-3 Dragons team upset Memphis in the first round, and was on Phil Martelli’s staff during St. Joe’s’ undefeated regular season in 2004.

Ross brings valuable head coaching experience to McKie’s staff, as Aaron has never been a head coach at any level. Ross’ first season as an assistant with Lehigh was in 1993-94, McKie’s senior year at Temple. The Philadelphia native also brings local connections, a huge asset for area schools, having recruited the area and made local contacts as a division one coach since the mid-90’s.

Rumored to be joining Ross and Clark on the Temple staff are Marc Macon, an all-time Temple great whose number has been retired by the school, former Temple forward Jason Ivey, and Lafayette assistant Jimmy Fenerty. Fenerty was a grad assistant with the Owls in 2013-14. His father, also Jim, was the head coach of Germantown Academy, a Philly-area high school in Fort Washington, PA, for thirty years.