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MARQUETTE -- It's not that often an NBA executive makes his way to the Upper Peninsula, but today the General Manager of the Milwaukee Bucks spoke on the campus of Northern Michigan.

Hammond has a connection to the Wildcat Basketball these days.  Northern's new mens basketball head coach, Doug Lewis, Jr., played for Hammond at South West Missouri State back in the late 1980s.

While recruiting the future NMU bench boss, the NBA 2010 Executive of the Year knew Lewis would make an outstanding college coach.

"It started at SW Missouri State in junior college when I first saw him play and started the recruiting process, said the long-time NBA executive.  "Just a guy that had great poise on the floor, had command of the game, and you could see he was a man of character.  Doug came in and led us to two more NCAA Tournaments.  It's now Missouri State University, but at that time it was SW Missouri State, and we were kind of known as giant killers and Doug was a part of that."

Hammond helped lead Lewis and his teammates as a No. 13 seed to the NCAA tournament and a 65-60 upset win over No. 4 Clemson in 1987.  Hammond was an assistant coach and assistant GM with the Detroit Pistons and had also been apart of the L.A. Clippers staff.