AACBasketballHiring

South Florida hires Brian Gregory as new head coach

South Florida introduced Brian Gregory on Tuesday as the Bulls’ new head basketball coach. Gregory has 13 years of head coaching experience at Georgia Tech and Dayton, has been to the NCAA Tournament twice and won the 2010 NIT Championship with the Flyers.

It’s been a rough few years for USF, who last made the Tournament in 2012 as members of the old Big East. Previous coach Orlando Antigua was fired in January after the Bulls got off to a 6-7 (0-2) start, coming off back-to-back single digit win seasons. Assistant coach Murry Bartow took over for the rest of the season, but the Bulls went just 1-16 during that stretch and finished in last place in the AAC.

Gregory should bring some excitement to the program, whose fan base has seen the team at the bottom of the conference standings for the last five seasons. After a successful 8-year tenure Dayton, Gregory spent 5 seasons at Georgia Tech. In his fifth year, he led the Yellow Jackets back to NIT but was fired after the season. The decision was questioned at the time, as Gregory had just completed the first 20-win season for the program in six years.

Gregory spent this past season as a consultant to Tom Izzo, under whom he spent five seasons as an assistant before getting the Dayton job.

The last USF coach to have any success, Stan Heath, also came in win Power-5 experience. Heath coached Arkansas for five seasons, in addition to a one-year stint at Kent State in which he led the team to the 2002 Elite Eight.

In a statement on Tuesday, Gregory had this to say: “I am very excited to get to work, to talk with the players and to meet Bulls Nation and the Bay Area community.” USF President Judy Genshaft added that Gregory “will bring passion, discipline, mentoring and leadership in building a successful program.”