It has been six months since Brian Gregory was named men’s head basketball coach at the University of Dayton. That six months probably seems like six weeks to Gregory and his staff as they have worked at breakneck speed to put together a plan for both the present and the future.

We all have our opinions of just how much has been accomplished during those six months. Some are ready to take down Tom Blackburn’s and Don Donoher’s pictures from the Arena and put Gregory’s in their place. Others are saying, “So what?”

If you go back in time and remember where the basketball program was six months ago, you have to feel good about where it is today. It was just a short time after the basketball season ended with a resounding thud at the hand of the Tulsa Hurricanes that Oliver Purnell had tendered his resignation. UD was a ship without a rudder, with one of the most important recruiting seasons just moments away.

Purnell had taken a once storied program from the depths of four win seasons to being a four seed in the NCAA Tournament. Never before had UD been so highly regarded in the tournament to decide the National Championship. Yes, they had ventured into the Elite-8 and the championship finals on two separate occasions, but those were both flukes in the eyes of the Selection Committee.

Purnell certainly had his supporters and detractors, but one cannot argue with his success. Continual twenty win seasons and annual trips to post season tournaments cannot be dismissed. Yet, there were always questions concerning his ability to take us to the “next level.” Some felt UD was already at that next level, but many yearned for long runs in the NCAA Tournament.

You can be the best coach in the universe, but if you do not have the horses, going up against the big boys presents insurmountable problems. Purnell never seemed to be able to close the deal on the prized recruits. Maybe it was him, maybe it was the University, maybe it was the conference. No matter what it was, he had to do his best with athletes that the Big Five conferences tended to turn their collective noses up to. That doesn’t mean that the Keith Waleskowski’s and Ramod Marshall’s of the world didn’t perform well in his system. It just meant that UD had to out do everything the top schools did because they did not have the super athletes.

With that knowledge, Ted Kissell went about his work in finding Purnell’s successor with the deep felt knowledge that he needed to hire someone that could close the deal on the top players in the country. The ability to coach and teach the UD way of life to players was certainly important, but he truly wanted someone that could take us to that mysterious “next level.”

After an exhausting, yet, swift search, Brian Gregory was named as just the fifth head coach in nearly six decades at the University of Dayton. Gregory needed to do a lot in a very brief time because he didn’t have a group of assistants to take with him as most coaches do when they move up. He also had recruiting needs for both the upcoming year and the following year.

Gregory, however, was ready. Not sitting idly just because he was an assistant, Gregory already had a very good idea of whom he wanted to bring with him to Dayton. Within eight days, he had his top three coaches in place. A young man himself, he felt that it was important to bring young energetic coaches into the fold. Mike Jackson, Billy Schmidt and Morgan “Mo” Cassara, joined the program and almost immediately the group began recruiting.

Although there were no scholarships utilized for the 2003/2004 season, it wasn’t long before a constant flow of potential future Flyers began showing up on campus. It didn’t take long to realize that the players being recruited by Gregory were not the same players that Purnell would typically try to attract. No longer were we wrestling with Northern Illinois or some other directional university. Gregory was catching the eye of players that were also being recruited by the Big East, Big Ten and ACC schools.

It was at this point that fans started to take sides on just how good of a job Gregory was doing. He was anything from a genius that was the best recruiter in the world to a guy that just couldn’t get that top 100 player. Many fans fell somewhere in between with many taking a “wait and see” attitude.

Before you can even try to assess how good a job Gregory did, you have to understand from where he was recruiting. The University of Dayton had just come from its second first round loss in the NCAA in the previous four years. Although a four seed, the game was a pick-em or just a slight favorite toward UD on the Las Vegas board. The selection committee gave UD the four seed, but nobody believed it. The Flyers then went out and proved the betters were right and got their tail ends whipped. As a result, any respect that might have been gained was lost. The lack of respect in pre season polls confirms that belief. Another one-shot wonder.

Still not viewed as a top program, Gregory needed to convince these 17 year olds that belief wasn’t true. He needed to make them believe in the dream that a national championship could actually be won at the University of Dayton. Not an easy task.

He also had the disadvantage of never coaching a single college game on his resume’. It isn’t always easy to convince someone that your game plan fits their skills to a T without anyone experiencing your coaching style. Words can express a great deal, but there is nothing like looking at actual game tape to show what you want to accomplish.

Despite those disadvantages, Gregory and the rest of his young staff were able to craft, if not a spectacular, certainly a highly thought of group of recruits. Although none has officially been able to sign a letter of intent, five well thought of players have verbally agreed to matriculate at the University of Dayton. None would appear to be consensus top 100 players at this time, but that doesn’t mean that they do not have the skills necessary to get UD to being thought of as a Top 25 program.

Gregory did his best to recruit a number of interchangeable pieces to a complicated puzzle of changing rules and changing concepts. Although he didn’t land a seven foot stud to man the center position for the next four years, he did find himself a highly thought of Keith Waleskowski type player that can play both underneath and pop outside to sink a jumper in Chris Alvarez.

He didn’t get that lightening quick, water spider type point guard that everyone seems to want. Yet he did secure the services of Trent Meacham who knows how to distribute the ball and can drop one from just outside of the city limits. His shooting guard played point guard and only made third team all-Ohio as a Junior. Brian Roberts may not be one of the top guards in the country but he did grab the attention of SEC and Big 10 schools. He also gives Gregory another good ball handler that he could slip over to the point if necessary.

It wasn’t until he attended some camps this summer that people even started talking about Jimmie Binnie. Listed at the beginning of the summer as the 224th best player available, Binnie quickly moved up on a number of lists as he showed that he could not only get his shot off, but hit a high percentage of them as well. His experience playing AAU ball with Meacham can only help their transition to college ball.

The first player Gregory successfully recruited was Norm Plummer. Quite possibly the best of the group, Plummer has played against some of the top competition in the country and averaged 27 points per game in the process. There is nothing but a huge upside for Plummer and Gregory just might have gotten that guy that the big name schools will kick themselves for not securing.

On the surface this is a good, but not great recruiting class. Often, however, a good class is better than a great one. One doesn’t have to have too good of a memory to remember the number one class that DePaul recruited a few years ago that got them nothing but losing records and an unemployed coach. Purnell proved that you can win with talent that slips under the radar. It will now be Gregory’s turn to show that you can win big with talent that is not at the top of everyone’s recruiting list. It is better to have a toolbox that is filled with the right tools than one that is filled with expensive ones that do not fulfill your needs.

Six months on the job and many Flyer fans have already made up their mind about Brian Gregory. The truth is, we won’t know everything about Mr. Gregory for several years. We know he can recruit good players. We don’t know if he can recruit great players. We don’t know if he can take good players and make them great players. We don’t know if he can coach a lick.

What we do know is that he will work his tail off to be a winner. We know that he is proud to be a Flyer and has done his best. To not only understand what it means to be a Flyer, but to draw in former Flyers as well. He has done all of the right things. Flyer lovers everywhere just need to give him some time to instill his beliefs into the program and make it grow.

Do not be surprised to see his teams peaking at the right time. Do not be surprised to see his first team struggle in the beginning to put his concepts into play. Do not be surprised to see his first team not only make the NCAA Tournament, but keep us interested past the first day. Do not be surprised to some day watch your Flyers play for a national championship.