University of Detroit Mercy Athletics

Lamar Chapman was named an assistant coach with the men's basketball team in May of 2024.

Chapman has spent nearly 25 years coaching high school and college basketball and was on Mark Montgomery's staff at Northern Illinois.

"Lamar is an excellent coach who I have known for a long time," said Montgomery. "He has a track record for helping improve student-athletes on and off the court everywhere he has been, and his local and national recruiting ties will be invaluable to this program."

He spent last season as head coach of Caledonia High School in Caledonia, Michigan. Chapman led Caledonia to a 12-12 overall record and an appearance in the district championship game. 

Prior to that, he was an assistant coach at Gordan State, a junior college in Georgia, and Central Connecticut State, a Division I school from the North East Conference. 

Chapman worked with Montgomery for four years at NIU as an Associate head coach and was named the interim head coach in 2020-21. During his time, he coached the program's all-time leading scorer in Eugene German and helped the Huskies win a share of the MAC West Division title in 2019-20. That season, NIU won its most conference games in 14 campaigns and German became the eighth player in program history to earn All-America recognition. The Huskies also recorded their first win over a ranked opponent since 1973 with a win over #14 Buffalo and advanced to the MAC semifinals for the first time since 2003.

Before that, he spent nine seasons at Stony Brook University, helping the Seawolves to four regular-season conference titles, one America East Tournament championship and seven postseason appearances, including the school's first NCAA Tournament bid in 2016. In his nine years, the Seawolves had six 22-plus win seasons and he recruited the 2010 conference Player of the Year and 2012 Defensive Player of the Year Muhammad El-Amin, in addition to three all-league performers.

Chapman's collegiate coaching career began with three seasons at Central Michigan before he went to Toledo for two seasons. He helped develop a First-Team All-MAC performer at CMU and helped the Rockets win their first MAC regular-season title in 26 years during his first season with the program.

His coaching career began with a highly successful two-year run as head coach at the high school level with Muskegon Heights, MI. He coached the Tigers to a 42-9 record and an appearance in the Class B state final and Class C state semifinals during his tenure. Chapman guided Muskegon Heights to a 21-5 record in 2001-02 and was named the Class A & B Coach of the Year by the Muskegon Chronicle. In 2002-03, the Tigers were 21-4 and repeated as district and regional champions, earning a state runner-up finish. 

A native of Muskegon Heights, Michigan, Chapman was a four-year starting guard at Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee. He was the school's Athlete of the Year in 1991 and 1992 and was inducted into the Jackson-Madison County Athletic Hall of Fame in 1992.

He received his Bachelor's degree in Health and Physical Education from Lane in 1993.