Admit it, you were a little nervous when the rumors started flying about Brian Gregory and the head coach opening at DePaul. It didn’t matter if you were a Gregory fan or not, his leaving the program at this particular point in time could be disastrous. There will be three scholarships to fill for the 2006-2007school year and having a head coaching position in flux would not be a good thing.

What was going through the mind of most Flyer fans was no different than was there just a few years ago when Oliver Purnell was mentioned several times with openings. Anytime you have a program on the rise you need to be worried about losing your coach. It used to be far simpler. You hired a coach and he stayed there until he was filed. The Don Donohers, Digger Phelps and Ray Meyers of the coaching world no longer exist. A coach is no longer hired to be fired; he is hired to be stolen away when he does well.

There was a period where only the little guys of the basketball world had to be concerned. If your favorite team was in one of the big six conferences, you never had to worry about your coach leaving. Bobby Knight, Dean Smith, John Wooden were there forever. No more. When the money comes calling, people jump ship. Sometimes it is for an even better chance to win a national championship or the ability to go back to your alma mater. Even Duke had to be worried about Coach K. for a while last year.

What I am trying to say is “Get used to it.” Xavier turns over their coach every five years or so and they have done just fine. A program can sustain itself if there is more there than just a coach. UNLV was a national power until Jerry Tarkanian left. They immediately became an also-ran. UCLA has won a national championship after Wooden left, but never sustained that power that he brought to the University. Even the best can sink when the coach leaves. UD is more than five guys running up and down the hardwood.

You can pretty much take it to the bank that Brian Gregory will not retire from the University of Dayton. As much as the average fan would like to believe that UD is the end all to every coach’s dream, it is not. If the University of Dayton ever wins a national championship, it is highly unlikely that it will come in men’s basketball. The field is not level when it comes to the major sports. Money is too big of a factor. Television exposure is a close second. Despite the success of the UD program over the last decade, there will never be enough money or television exposure to compete with the big boys. UD may be able to beat Ohio State on the court, but they will never be able to beat them at the money game.

The DePaul opportunity certainly could be appealing to Gregory. It is his and his wife’s home area. He rooted for DePaul as a kid. There is more money and certainly more exposure there. The ability to recruit Chicago kids is a huge advantage to what he has in Dayton. The ability to play Big East teams like UConn, Syracuse and Notre Dame on TV and at home is something he will never have in Dayton. DePaul may not be Nirvana, but it isn’t Schenectady either.

Brian Gregory is a smart man. He knows that this is not the time. Yes, he has done reasonably well in his short stay at Dayton, but not well enough to have a top tier, big conference school come calling. Getting to the NCAA with a heavily laden senior class that was there the year before does not make a first year coach a hot commodity. Bringing in a good class of freshmen and winning 18 games gets him into an area of interest. Getting that class as sophomores into the dance and winning one or more games makes him hot.

Gregory would have to be interested in returning to the Big Ten. Would he want to go to Northwestern? Probably not. Would he want to go to Indiana? This is a situation that would be much more interesting. Would he return to Michigan State? That is a no-brainer.

My guess is that Gregory would not leave Dayton soon if his classes continue to improve and it is proven to him that he can get the Final Four while at Dayton and be a consistent Sweet 16 participant. When the question was posed earlier on the UDPride Message Board concerning how many teams made it back to the Sweet 16, it was amazing that only three teams repeated and that only Duke had made it three straight years. Even at the big schools, consistent participation in the Sweet 16 isn’t easy. Can it be done at Dayton? Only time will tell.

I believe that Gregory completely understands what he currently has. He is the king of a program that grips the city of Dayton for five months every year. There is no real competition for that attention. I also believe that he has fallen in love with UD. For an outsider, this would be difficult to imagine. For someone that has experienced it, it is not so far fetched. It was key when Gregory stated that he wanted to be there for the kids he recruited. He wants to reward them for believing in him.

Brian Gregory is not your typical coach. He is more dedicated that most, despite the craziness that overtakes so many of these Type A men. He also seems to have a sense of loyalty that is hard to come by in a profession of win-at-all-costs-get-to-the-next-level job hopping. I could be wrong, but if he finds success here and feels that it is repeatable, he could be at UD for a decade. Gregory is the kind of man that you want in front of a camera or microphone or parent. He is the type of man that makes you happy that he represents your school.

He is all of these things, but don’t feel bad if he decides to move on. If he does move to the next level, then good for him. If he moves on, he will have left the University in a good situation. This is not 1994. Whoever will take over for Gregory when he leaves for greener pastures will be left with a program in good shape with a cupboard full of talent. UD will be a prime location not just a stepping-stone.