Brian Gregory is everything that the University of Dayton looks for in a coach. First and foremost he is an honest man that has real morals. There is nothing that he would do to injure the reputation of UD both on the basketball court and off. He has been an excellent ambassador to the city of Dayton and for the city of Dayton. He has brought former UD players back into the fold and made them realize that they still matter. On top of all of that, he loves UD and might just be willing to stay here until he retires. He is just about everything that a fan could ever want. The problem is that he is not what the fans want now.

There is the misbelieve by many that the Athletic Director hires and fires coaches. In the end, there are far more people involved. No one likes to hear this but money plays a huge role in who gets hired and who gets fired. If you take a surface look at what is happening right now at the University of Dayton with money as the indicator, all would look good. New record for season tickets and several sellouts during the season. All of that translates into dollars flowing into the pocket of the UD athletic budget. Without that money, several other sports would quickly be abandoned.

However, if you dig a little deeper, there may be a concern moving forward. The attendance at the A-10 first round game in 2010 was 6,930. The attendance at the NIT game was 5,127 or roughly 38% of capacity. If there would have been any post season action at the Arena this year it would have been just as bad or worse. If UD had not won the NIT last year, there would not have been a record set for season tickets. That was a one year fluke. Season tickets will certainly drop next year.

As attendance drops, the advertising money will be right behind it. If Joe fan isn’t happy, not coming to games and not watching on television, then Joe sponsor isn’t happy. UD cannot afford drops in these revenues. On the surface, the administration is smiling and saying that everything is just fine, but you have to believe that there are discussions taking place about the relative strength of the program.

When you take a long hard look at the results on the court, the best that you can say is that they are mixed. In the last eight years, the non-conference results (including post season) are 99-35 which is a 74% winning percentage. The regular season in conference result are 70-58 which is a 55% winning percentage. In the last six years it is 48-48.

There are many theories as to why they excel outside the conference but struggle within. It could be that they practice too hard and are tired and hurt by the end of the season. Another popular view is that the schools outside the conference just don’t know how to defend us and those inside do. I’m not sure what the actual reason is, but the results do not lie. We are no more than middle of the pack in our own conference. If the A-10 was a “BCS” conference, that might be acceptable, but it is not and as a result we struggle to make the NCAA tournament.

With all tournament results still pending, we stand at 310 in field goal percentage. This is worse than any Gregory team has fared before, but continues a trend that started after Brian Roberts graduated. It is likely a product of Gregory’s view of what a basketball player is. His penchant for fast, athletic type players seems to be limiting the type of player he recruits. Luke Fabrizuis is an exception to that type, but he is one of the few “shooters” that he has successfully recruited.

This lack of shooting ability leads to a stagnate offense. If Dayton has to play half court basketball they are in trouble. Despite leading the conference in rebounding margin, they just can’t put the ball in the hoop. If it isn’t a dunk, it is a question mark.

This year’s team seemed to struggle with consistency. They seemed too reliant on the three and being a poor shooting three point team just played into opponents’ game plans. Last year’s team was a disappointment but somehow put it together for five games and all was forgiven. They hustled from the opening tipoff and were successful. This team just doesn’t seem to understand that with its own deficiencies, not hustling for 40 minutes just doesn’t work. How many times did we hear this year after a loss that by their own admission, they just didn’t play hard enough?

As fans of UD basketball, we have become accustomed to the saying “Wait until next year.” We are too forgiving, too understanding. We fall back on the explanation that we graduate all of our players or we are not “thugs” or we just don’t get any breaks. The fact of the matter is,our team is just not good enough.

We fall into the belief that the players that are recruited every year are going to be better than the ones that they are replacing. That no longer seems to be the case. Even the players that excel in high school fall apart when they step on the Arena floor. That is either poor coaching or poor recruiting or just poor playing. There is no other explanation.

There may be a few bigger fans than myself of University of Dayton athletics. I have attended games for soccer, baseball, football, volleyball and both teams for basketball. For 20 years, I drove 90 minutes each way to see these games. I have written for UDPride for a decade because I love UD not because I get paid. That is why it hurts me to say this, but I believe that it is time for a change.

When I found out two years ago that I had cancer, it gave me a different view of life. I became less patient because I realized that I wouldn’t live forever. I came to the realization that I needed results faster. I could not just sit back and wait for things to change, I had to take care of things myself. I have waited for Brian Gregory to take UD to the “next level.” I do not feel that one NCAA trip in the last seven years is taking us to the next level. I no longer feel that he can do it.

This is extremely hard for me to admit because I have been one of Brian Gregory’s biggest supporters since he arrived. My biggest hope was that he would be another Don Donoher and coach his entire career here, but I just can’t wait any longer. I have lost my faith in him. I just don’t think he can get us there and keep us there. My fear is that next year will be more of the same. You change the bodies, but the results are the same. I just can’t wait any longer.