The Sioux Falls Skyforce haven't had a season to remember as the NBA D-League team fired coach Tony Fritz last week, announced on Twitter earlier this week that interim head coach Duane Ticknor would like to go back to being the team's assistant coach and are currently mired in an awful 13-game losing streak in the midst of a 2-18 season.
Despite not having a season to remember, however, they have found a new head coach that at least locals will remember.
The team is expected to announce today the hiring of former San Antonio Spurs coach Mo McHone. McHone's hiring, first reported by the Argus Leader's Terry Vandrovec, has been confirmed by FanHouse.
McHone, the Skyforce's franchise leader in wins with a career record of 172-102 in the regular season, previously coached the Skyforce from 1995-1999 and then again during the 2006-07 season. In the postseason for Sioux Falls, McHone has amassed a 29-22 record and led the team to the championship in the 1996 CBA Finals.
In McHone, the Skyforce have hired perhaps the most experienced coach in the D-League this season and the second -- along with Reno's Eric Musselman -- with head coaching experience in the NBA.
To begin his NBA coaching career, McHone served as an assistant for the Spurs from 1980-83 before briefly being promoted to head coach for the first 31 games during the 1983-84 season where he'd compile an 11-20 record before being being replaced. McHone has also been an assistant coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers (1979-80 and 1985-86), Detroit Pistons (1999-2001) and Los Angeles Clippers (2001-03).
McHone's other career coaching stops include 14 years as a college assistant with stints at Florida State (1970-78), the University of Georgia (1978-79) and Bradley University (1986-91) as well as three stints as head coach for USA Basketball with the 1997 Tournament of Americas Team, the 1999 USA Men's Pan American Games Team and the 2005 USA Men's World Championship Qualifying Team. His most recent stops include time spent as the director of basketball operations for the Austin Toros as well as being a scout for a team in the Korean Basketball League according to the Argus Leader.
McHone's first games back in Sioux Falls as head coach will take place this weekend as the Skyforce play host to the New Mexico Thunderbirds Friday and Saturday night while trying to snap the franchise-record losing streak.
Mo McHone, Former NBA Head Coach, Next Head Coach of D-League's Skyforce
Jan 20, 2011 – 8:00 AM
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