AMES, Iowa -- The job of turning around Iowa State's basketball program was given to self-described Iowa farm boy Greg McDermott.
The Northern Iowa coach was hired by the Cyclones on Tuesday, four days after Wayne Morgan was fired.
The 41-year-old McDermott led the Panthers to three straight NCAA tournaments in his five seasons and 20-plus wins in each of the past three seasons.
"This place was special enough to leave home to come here," said McDermott, a former Northern Iowa player. "I'm one of you. I'm a farm boy from Cascade, Iowa."
Iowa State athletic director Jamie Pollard said that McDermott has agreed to a six-year deal at $650,000 per year, plus incentives.
McDermott's hiring comes at the end of a search that Pollard had whittled down to two candidates: Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Rob Jeter and McDermott.
Pollard met with McDermott on Sunday, decided on him over Jeter and offered McDermott the job late Monday night.
"I just feel coach McDermott was a better fit for Iowa State," Pollard said.
McDermott spent seven seasons as a Division II head coach, six at Wayne State College and one at North Dakota State, before joining Northern Iowa.
The Panthers went 90-63 under McDermott and finished 23-10 this season, losing to Georgetown on Friday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Iowa State began the season ranked No. 25, but finished 16-14 and missed out on postseason play.
"Next year's Cyclones team is going to defend. We're going to value the basketball and we're going to play unselfish basketball," McDermott said.
McDermott replaces Morgan, who was fired on Friday -- two days after a report surfaced that Iowa State and a number of other programs may have steered more than $100,000 to a California business run by a junior college coach.
A CBS Sportsline.com story last week alleged that D1 Scheduling, a company founded by Los Angeles Community College coach Mike Miller, might have been delivering LACC players to Division I schools, including Iowa State, that paid the company to arrange games.
Iowa State has said they do not believe Morgan was involved in any wrongdoing.
Morgan's predecessor was Larry Eustachy, who resigned in 2003 after newspaper photographs showed him drinking with college students on Big 12 road trips.
Pollard said he wanted the next coach to have Midwestern roots be able to turn the program around.
"It came down to giving a guy from Iowa a chance to prove that his formula works at the big-time level," Pollard said. "What's important to me is that we build this overall athletic program the right way."
McDermott said the decision to leave Cedar Falls was a heart-wrenching one, but the chance to coach in a prestigious conference and remain in his home state was too good to pass up.
"Part of me could have stayed at Northern Iowa forever and sailed off into the sunset," McDermott said. "But the competitive side of me wanted to coach in the Big 12 conference and wanted to attempt to win a championship in the Big 12 conference."
