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Purdue assistant to become head coach of Mercer basketball
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Purdue assistant coach Greg Gary has landed his first head coaching job at the Division I level.
On Tuesday night, Mercer announced that Gary would become the 27th head coach in the program’s history. An introductory press conference will be scheduled for a later date, once Purdue’s season comes to an end. The Boilermakers will play Tennessee in the Sweet Sixteen on Thursday evening.
Gary has spent the last eight years on Matt Painter’s staff and has been one of the top assistants with the program.
“This is such an incredible opportunity and I am both grateful and honored to have been selected as the head men’s basketball coach at Mercer University,” Gary said, according to Mercer’s official website. “My family and I could not be more thrilled to have joined the Mercer basketball family and we look forward to joining the Macon community. I’d like to thank President Underwood, Jim Cole and Sybil Blalock for their confidence in me to move this program forward and I appreciate their vision and look forward to seeing our young men succeed in both the classroom and on the court.”
Before joining Painter’s staff in West Lafayette, Gary was an assistant coach at Duquesne (2007-08, 2010-11), South Florida (2oo4-07), Miami (2000-04), Tulane (1993-97, 1998-2000) and McNeese State (1997-98). He also served as the head coach at Centenary from 2009-10.
Gary has been a member of a staff at Purdue that has won two B1G regular season titles, made six trips to the NCAA Tournament and three-straight Sweet Sixteen appearances.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB