Brian Francis Gregory (born December 15, 1966) is an American basketball executive and former coach and player who is the

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. The Suns compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA), We ...

. He was vice president of player programming for the

, and a former

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

coach who was most recently the head men's basketball coach at

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

. He was previously serving as a consultant to

Tom Izzo Thomas Michael Izzo (, ; born January 30, 1955) is an American college basketball coach who has been the head coach at Michigan State University since 1995. On April 4, 2016, Izzo was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Izzo has le ...

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the ...

after being let go as head coach with

Georgia Tech The Georgia Institute of Technology (commonly referred to as Georgia Tech, GT, and simply Tech or the Institute) is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Established in 1885, it has the lar ...

. Prior to coaching at Georgia Tech, he was the head coach at

Dayton Dayton () is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of cities in Ohio, sixth-most populous city in Ohio, with a population of 137,644 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The Dayton metro ...

and an assistant coach under Izzo at Michigan State.

Early life and education

From 1985 to 1986, Gregory attended the

U.S. Naval Academy The United States Naval Academy (USNA, Navy, or Annapolis) is a federal service academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It was established on 10 October 1845 during the tenure of George Bancroft as Secretary of the Navy. The Naval Academy is the sec ...

where he played on the Navy team that featured

David Robinson David Maurice Robinson (born August 6, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player who played for the San Antonio Spurs in the National Basketball Association (NBA) from 1989 to 2003, and minority owner of the Spurs. Nicknamed ...

and advanced to the

Elite Eight In the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, NCAA men's Division I basketball championship or the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament, NCAA women's Division I basketball championship, the "Elite Eight" comprises the final eight t ...

of the NCAA tournament. He then went to

Oakland University Oakland University (OU or Oakland) is a public university, public research university in Auburn Hills, Michigan, Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1957 through a donation of Matilda Dodge Wilson and husband ...

where he was a three-time all conference selection and in 1990 was named an Academic All-American. In 1990, Gregory graduated from

with a Bachelor of Arts in secondary education. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in athletic administration at

, graduating in 1992.

Coach

Michigan State

Gregory was an assistant at

for five years, from 1999 to 2003, under head coach

. During that time, the Spartans reached the

Final Four In sports, the final four is the last four teams remaining in a playoffs, playoff tournament. Usually the final four compete in the two games of a single-elimination tournament's semi-final (penultimate) round. Of these teams, the two who win in ...

three times and won the 2000 national title.

Dayton

On April 9, 2003, Gregory was named the head basketball coach of the

Dayton Flyers The Dayton Flyers are the intercollegiate athletic teams of the University of Dayton of Dayton, Ohio. All Flyers intercollegiate sports teams participate at the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA Division I level. The football team ...

. As Flyers head coach, he led the team to the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and the

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

NCAA tournaments as well as the 2008 National Invitation Tournament. On January 14, 2008, Gregory led the Dayton Flyers to a top-14 ranking in the AP poll. This was the highest ranking for Dayton in 40 years. He capped off the 2009–10 season by leading the Flyers to the 2010 NIT championship over

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. Gregory had a 172–94 record with the Flyers over eight seasons and NCAA Tournament appearances.

Georgia Tech

On March 28, 2011, it was announced that Gregory would become the 13th head coach at

replacing Paul Hewitt. Gregory struggled at Georgia Tech, only finishing above .500 two times. He failed to make a postseason appearance in his first four years at Georgia Tech. On March 16, 2015, Georgia Tech announced that Gregory would continue as head basketball coach for another year, despite the fact he never had a conference finish higher than ninth. In the 2015–16 season, Georgia Tech improved, finishing the season 21–15 and did receive a bid to the

National Invitation Tournament The National Invitation Tournament (NIT) is an annual men's college basketball tournament operated by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). Since 2023, all rounds of the tournament are played at various sites across the country whi ...

, their first postseason trip under Gregory. The Yellow Jackets won two games before losing in the quarterfinals. After a 5th consecutive losing record in the ACC, Georgia Tech Athletic Director Mike Bobinski announced on March 25, 2016, that Gregory would not return for the 2016–17 season. His record was 76–86 overall and 27–61 in ACC play.

Michigan State

Gregory served as a consultant to his old head coach Tom Izzo at Michigan State during the 2016–17 season.

South Florida

On March 14, 2017, Gregory was hired as head coach at South Florida to replace Orlando Antigua. USF went 10–22 in Gregory's first season, which was the first time the program posted ten wins since the 2014–15 season—the first of the Antigua era. It posted a 7–11 record at the Yuengling Center (formerly the USF Sun Dome), but struggled away from home, collecting just three wins away from Tampa. The Bulls finished 3–15 in AAC play, last in the conference and was a first-round exit in the 2018 conference tournament. Gregory welcomed nine new players to the program for the 2018–19 season. USF also was benefitted by Gardner–Webb transfer Laquincy Rideau, who came off a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

season in 2017–18 and Alexis Yetna's addition to the hardwood. It started the season 10–2 through non-conference play before going 8–10 in AAC play. Under Gregory's eye, Rideau earned an AAC Defensive Player of the Year honor, while Yetna was named the league's Freshman of the Year for their efforts during the regular season. Although it was bounced in the first round of the conference tournament yet again, this time by

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university system with its main campus in Storrs, Connecticut, United States. It was founded in 1881 as the Storrs Agricultural School, named after two benefactors. In 1893, ...

, USF received a bid to play in the

College Basketball Invitational The College Basketball Invitational (CBI) is a men's college basketball tournament created in 2007 by The Gazelle Group. The inaugural tournament occurred after the conclusion of the 2007–08 men's college basketball regular season. The CBI sel ...

, the third tier postseason college basketball tournament. The Bulls came back from a 25-point deficit to defeat Stony Brook in the first round before defeating

Utah Valley Utah Valley is a valley in North Central Utah located in Utah County, Utah, Utah County, and is considered part of the Wasatch Front. It contains the cities of Provo, Utah, Provo, Orem, Utah, Orem, and their suburbs, including Alpine, Utah, A ...

and

Loyola Marymount Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

to reach the CBI finals. In a three-game series against DePaul, the Bulls took two-of-three (63–61, 96–100 OT, 77–65) to win the tournament. Sophomore guard David Collins was named as the tournament's MVP. In the process, USF finished 24–14 and had the largest improvement among

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

teams. Three Bulls—Rideau, Collins and Yetna—were named preseason all-conference selections before the 2019–20 season. Yetna, who had battled a leg injury and rehabbed over the previous summer, suffered a devastating knee injury in practice prior to the team's season opening game against Arkansas–Pine Bluff and was ruled out for the season. Former

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

transfer Mayan Kiir left the team as well, turning the Bulls into one of the largest teams in the AAC to one of the smallest teams in the conference. As a result, the Bulls struggled offensively and failed to reach 70 points in 24 in 31 of their games. However, USF was extremely strong on the defensive side of the court, ranking 20th in the NCAA in scoring defense (62.7 PPG), while holding 27 of its 31 opponents under their season scoring average at the time of play. USF failed to put together a second straight winning season under Gregory, going 14–17 and 7–11 in AAC play. The Bulls were slated to play War on I-4 rival UCF in the first round of the conference tournament before the conference announced the cancelation of the game due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, just 65 minutes before tipoff between the Bulls and Knights. Over the extended break caused by the coronavirus, the Bulls added length and saw the return of Yetna to the starting rotation. Former

Mississippi State Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a public land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, United States. It is classified among "R ...

power forward Prince Oduro and

Texas Tech Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship institution of the five- ...

center Russel Tchewa joined the squad and the Bulls brought in consensus four-star combo guard Caleb Murphy to bolster a team that just lost two seniors and one outgoing transfer. USF was picked to finish 5th in the AAC in the 2020–21 season. Gregory won his 300th career game as a head coach on December 12, 2020, against Wofford. It was announced, on January 4, 2022, that Gregory's contract would be extended until the 2025–26 season, as a part of 14 overall head coach extensions executed by USF Vice President of Athletics Michael Kelly. After enduring a fourth straight losing season, on March 10, 2023, Gregory was relieved of his duties as South Florida head coach.

Front office

On June 10, 2024, Gregory was hired as the

' vice president of player programming, joining former

Long Island Nets The Long Island Nets are an American professional basketball team in the NBA G League based in Uniondale, New York, and are affiliated with the Brooklyn Nets. The team plays its home games at the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Nassau County ...

general manager and

Brooklyn Nets The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Nets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), ...

vice president of strategy Matt Tellem as the newest front office hirings. He would join the team that's currently owned by Mat Ishbia, a player he had previously worked with while as an assistant coach for Michigan State University during their 1999–2000 NCAA championship season run. On May 1, 2025, Gregory was named the general manager of the Suns.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Brian Gregory
at

Sports Reference Sports Reference, LLC is an American sports statistics company that operates databases of several sports. They include Pro Football Reference for American football, Baseball Reference for baseball, Basketball Reference for basketball, Hockey ...

South Florida profile

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gregory, Brian 1966 births Living people American men's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from Illinois Basketball players from Illinois College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Dayton Flyers men's basketball coaches Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets men's basketball coaches Michigan State Spartans men's basketball coaches Navy Midshipmen men's basketball players Northwestern Wildcats men's basketball coaches Oakland Golden Grizzlies men's basketball players Sportspeople from Mount Prospect, Illinois Phoenix Suns executives South Florida Bulls men's basketball coaches Toledo Rockets men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Point guards Military personnel from Illinois 20th-century American sportsmen