Mark Gottfried hired as Cal State Northridge

Mark Gottfried, who was most recently the head coach at NC State, has been hired as the new head coach at Cal State Northridge.

The former NC State, Alabama and Murray State head coach started his career on the West Coast, serving as an assistant coach under Jim Harrick at UCLA from 1987-95. He has a 401-241 (.625) record as a Division I head coach across those three jobs.

The LA Times is reporting that Harrick might be getting back into coaching, though no specifics were revealed. In addition to Gottfried’s hiring another former assistant, Lorenzo Romar, just took over at Pepperdine.

The Matadors have been to the NCAA Tournament twice since moving up to Division I in 1990, the most recent trip coming in 2009. Gottfried has taken all three teams he has coached to the Tournament, with eleven appearances in total.

Former head coach Reggie Theus was fired earlier this month after four straight seasons winning 11 or fewer games.

One potential complication here is Gottfried’s appearance in federal documents pertaining to the ongoing FBI and NCAA investigation into ASM Sports and Christian Dawkins. Gottfried told the LA Times that he “doesn’t foresee any red flags” and is “confident that should be behind us quickly.”

credit to Sports Illustrated for the image