Kissell hired Oliver Purnell instead, which turned out to be a home run. And the ex-AD said he believes he hit another one out of the park when he replaced Purnell with Brian Gregory, who wasn’t always able to satisfy the masses but certainly managed to keep the program moving forward.
“I think it’s been very successful,” Kissell said of Gregory’s tenure. “I think it’s very hard to stay a hero at home, and you’re seeing some of that.
“A more objective benchmark of how the coach is doing is, what does the industry think? They have no bias. The ACC is certainly one of the elite leagues, and our last two coaches went from here to the ACC.”
Purnell left for Clemson in 2003 after four straight postseason appearances, and Gregory parlayed another stretch of four consecutive postseason berths into a job at Georgia Tech.
Purnell had a tougher road because of the mess he inherited, but he produced just a 3-4 postseason record in his final four years. Gregory was 8-3, notched the program’s first NCAA tourney win in 20 years and captured an NIT title.
The only other comparable stretch for the Flyers since the glory years of the 1950s and ’60s came in the mid-’80s when Don Donoher led UD to the Elite Eight and followed that with another NCAA appearance and then an NIT trip.
“You have to see (what Gregory did) in context of Dayton’s historic performance and position in the basketball world,” said Kissell, who is a regular at Flyers games when he’s not spending time at his winter home in Palm Springs, Calif.
“You look at the last 20 or 30 years, and how does his performance rate? I think it’s strong. ... If you take the rose-colored glasses off and compare Dayton to Dayton, he’s done a great job here.”
GETTING A RAISE: Gregory's six-year contract at Georgia Tech gives him a considerable bump in salary.
He made $800,000 at UD in 2010 and would have reached $1 million in pay in three years. Georgia Tech is giving him $1 million per year with incentives based on performance and academic achievement.
He may need some time to get the program rolling, but he’ll receive $75,000 each year he has a Graduation Success Rate of 70 percent or better and another $75,000 if he reaches an Academic Progress Rate of 950. He never missed those standards at UD.
Plus, he has more security. UD would have owed him only 1 1/2 years of salary if it fired him before his contract expired in 2018. His buyout at Georgia Tech is 2 1/2 years.
Contact this writer at (937) 225-2125 or dharris@DaytonDailyNews.com.
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