Brian Gregory: From Hersey Star to Phoenix Suns' GM
Veteran D-I College Coach Showed Basketball Passion Growing Up and Leading Huskies to 1985 Class AA Elite Eight in Champaign
Brian Gregory qualifies as a basketball lifer.
Mike Boyan shared just how much Gregory, his good friend, teammate and leader of Hersey’s 1985 Class AA Elite Eight qualifier, was into the game when we talked for Daily Herald story about the team’s 20th anniversary.
“He knew all the (opposing) players and what they were averaging,” Boyan said before their reunion organized by long-time coach Don Rowley in December 2004. “He was really into it more than we were.”
Now Gregory, the Daily Herald’s 1985 All-Area team captain, has to know the ins and outs of all the players at the highest levels after he was named the general manager of the Phoenix Suns on May 1. He joined the Suns’ front office in 2023 after more than 30 years as a Division I assistant and head coach.
“Brian has been a valuable member of our front office, playing an integral role in drafting and developing our young players,” said Suns owner Mat Ishbia in a statement announcing the change. “I am excited for him to step in to the role of general manager. He is a brilliant basketball mind, and he will transform and elevate our team.”
When Gregory attended the reunion of the 1985 team, he was coming off a debut head coaching season at Dayton with 24 wins and an NCAA tournament trip. No one would have imagined Gregory’s connection as an assistant to Tom Izzo on Michigan State’s 2000 NCAA champions and work with Ishbia, a walk-on guard, would lead to where he is today.
Ishbia’s incredible success in the mortgage business led to his purchase of the Suns. Gregory went 327-287 as a D-I head coach at Dayton, Georgia Tech and South Florida but was let go from the latter stop after the 2022-23 season.
Gregory’s most recent role for the Suns was vice president of player programming, where he oversaw player personnel and was instrumental in selecting Ryan Dunn and Oso Ighodaro in the 2024 draft, according to the Suns release.
“I’m never going to shy away from the fact that one of the reasons I’m sitting up here is because of my relationship with Mat Ishbia,” Gregory said in an Associated Press story after his first media availability as GM. “But that relationship is founded on our alignment. Shared values. Shared work ethic. We’ve been through a lot together. He trusts me and I trust him.”
After graduating from Hersey, Gregory played on the 1986 Navy team that reached the NCAA Elite Eight with Hall of Famer David Robinson. He transferred to Oakland University in Michigan, which was a Division II program at the time, and was a three-time all-conference pick.
He started his coaching career as an assistant at Michigan State to Jud Heathcote in 1990 and also had assistant’s stints at Toledo and Northwestern.
Below is a Daily Herald column just before the reunion of the 1985 team. Gregory arrived late because of his coaching schedule at Dayton but just in time to give old Hersey teammate and friend Steve Messer a hug at halftime.
Messer was on the opposite side as Elk Grove’s head coach that night and his team was leading his alma mater by 14 points at the break. Elk Grove held on to win 70-65.
Hersey ‘85 Team Thrilled to Get Back Together
Steve Messer will be planning to do what he can to mess up his own reunion tonight.
Hey, he’s got a job to do as Elk Grove’s head coach when his team visits Hersey for a Mid-Suburban East opener at 7:30 p.m.
Which could mean putting a little damper on the 20th anniversary celebration of Hersey’s 1984-85 Class AA Elite Eight team that included Messer.
“He’s screwed up a couple of other ones,” joked Hersey coach Don Rowley of last year’s Elk Grove comeback victory on the reunion night of the Huskies’ 1974 Elite Eight team.
But Rowley, who was an assistant for the ‘85 team that was the second of three in school history to reach Champaign, purposely scheduled Elk Grove so Messer would be able to see some of his old friends.
“It will be fun,” said Mike Boyan, a starting guard who is coming in with his family from Voorhees, N.J., which is just outside of Philadelphia.
Brian Gregory knows it will be and that’s why that season’s Daily Herald All-Area captain is hoping to be there. But he also has a job to do in his second year as the head coach at Dayton.
The original plan was for the Flyers to practice this afternoon with Gregory flying in via a private jet for the festivities that include a pregame ceremony at approximately 7 p.m.
But his travel plans hit a bit of a snag since Dayton’s Saturday game with Cincinnati was switched from the evening to the afternoon by ESPN.
Gregory did see some of his old pals Wednesday night when Dayton played DePaul at Allstate Arena. He usually gets together with Boyan when his team plays in the Philadelphia area and hooks up with Rick Hall at the Nike high school summer camp in Indianapolis.
“We do a pretty good job of staying in touch,” Gregory said a few hours before Dayton’s game with DePaul. “That team was so special for us seniors. A lot of us played together in the driveway since first and second grade so it was very, very special. It was a great team.”
And one that went through a lot of interesting twists and turns on the way to Champaign where Hersey lost 56-43 in the quarterfinals to eventual champion Mt. Carmel.
One of the unique qualities was the Huskies’ size alongside the 5-foot-10 Gregory, who played a year at Navy with David Robinson and starred at then-Division II Oakland University in Michigan.
Hall, the second-leading scorer behind Gregory, is 6-7. Boyan and starters Mike Bischoff and John Kelly are 6-6 and off the bench was 6-9 sophomore Bill Markham. That figures to make the 6-2 Messer a bit envious as he’s rarely looked up much at his successful but vertically challenged Elk Grove teams.
But the focus was usually on Gregory, who was “the catalyst,” according to Boyan. Rowley called him “the consummate point guard” even if he wasn’t the greatest shooter, quickest player or best leaper.
“He knew all the (opposing) players and what they were averaging,” said Boyan, who played baseball at Bradley and now teaches high school English. “He was really into it more than we were. We’d talk about going downstate but I don’t know if it was more a dream or goofing around.”
A year earlier, Gregory nearly helped turn a nightmare into a dream when he broke his femur in an open gym in October. It usually took six months just to walk correctly again.
By December, Gregory was shooting in the driveway in a cast with his mom rebounding. In January his cast was off and he was hobbling back to practice, in February he was hobbling back on the court and in March he was leading a 9-18 team on a surprising run to the sectional finals.
“We really dedicated ourselves during the summer and the bonds were so strong,” Gregory said. “Then we had a curveball thrown in there with Arlington closing.”
One of the curves was Rowley had just finished his first year as head coach. George Zigman had been at Arlington for 15 years and District 214 decided to give him the Hersey job while giving Rowley the option to go elsewhere in the district if he wanted.
But Rowley’s sons Don Jr. and Jon were eventually going to attend Hersey so he stayed as an assistant.
“I felt it would be best for the kids to stay here and help in the transition,” Rowley said.
“They were able to turn what could have been a negative into a positive,” Gregory said. “I give coach Rowley a lot of credit.”
Boyan said the transition wasn’t that tough because Zigman, who died in 1990, was their third coach in three years after he, Hall and Gregory played for John Lucas as sophomores.
Arlington’s closing also meant talent was going elsewhere. Guys such as Todd Wolfe, who played at Michigan State, and Bob Blackwood went to Prospect while Markham came to Hersey.
A tough 7-5 start included a harrowing experience on the way to the Pekin Holiday Tournament. Two of the three vehicles in their traveling party hit a patch of ice near downstate Odell and ended up in a ditch. Rowley was the only one who was injured with a broken rib.
“We were very thankful,” Rowley said. “It’s all part of the lore.”
Which grew after Christmas even though Hersey finished second in the Mid-Suburban North to Buffalo Grove.
“One of the big things was not winning the conference championship,” Gregory said. “That drove home the fact that our ultimate goal was still out there for us to get. We really focused in on what we needed to do to make a run in the state tournament.”
One that ultimately saw some old friends hook up for the first time that season against Prospect in the sectional final at Forest View.
Hersey had to overcome an 11-point deficit and Gregory getting popped in the nose with an elbow. But Gregory eventually returned and helped lead a 52-50 victory.
“I’ve coached a long time now and played in college,” said Gregory, who was an assistant for 13 years at Michigan State, Northwestern and Toledo, “and that’s still the most emotional game I’ve ever been involved in.”
The Huskies overpowered Carmel 74-48 in the supersectional as Zigman won his 500th career game. But in Champaign, they couldn’t overcome future Purdue standout Melvin McCants and Mt. Carmel and finished 22-7.
But it took nothing away from the memories.
“It probably did more to bring students together than anything we had that year,” Rowley said of the first year after the emotional and controversial closing of Arlington.
In his typical sense of humor, Boyan recalled how the majesty of entering Assembly Hall from the tunnel and playing on a Big Ten floor was suddenly interrupted by a dose of reality.
“I remember warming up,” he laughed, “and there was a dead spot on the floor.
“But I remember it was so great playing before a screaming place. We felt really together with the school and there was a lot of great school spirit.
“It was really a cool time to be in school and it really bonded the whole school together.”
Many of those bonds will be re-established tonight - even though Messer will do his best to break up the party a bit.