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DAYTON, Ohio – University of Dayton Vice President/Director of Athletics Neil Sullivan has announced that Anthony Grant will be the next head Flyer men's basketball coach.

"Anthony Grant is a proven winner with the highest integrity," Sullivan said. "He has successful experience in coaching, recruiting and playing basketball at an elite level. I welcome Anthony to our staff and look forward to partnering with him as we continue to aggressively pursue graduating student-athletes, winning conference championships and advancing in the NCAA Tournament. He is absolutely the right coach."

"I am honored and humbled to be the head coach at the University of Dayton," Grant said. "It's a great responsibility to take over at an institution that is so well-respected. Anyone you talk to in college basketball would say our program is a successful one, but the potential is here for so much more."

Grant was most recently on the coaching staff of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder, working with athletes such as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. He spent the last two seasons on Billy Donovan's staff after nine seasons as head coach at Alabama and VCU and 13 seasons as a Division I assistant coach.

In nine seasons as a head coach, Grant took his teams to three NCAA tournament appearances and six postseason tournament berths. He has a career record of 193-110 (.637).

GoldenWarrior11 wrote:Solid hire. Grant will do well at Dayton. He may even end up doing better than Archie.

Virginia Commonwealth 2006-09

Grant led VCU to a 79–77 upset of 6th seeded Duke to reach the 2nd round of the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Two of Grant's VCU players were drafted as first round draft picks in the 2009 (Eric Maynor) and 2010 NBA drafts (Larry Sanders).

Dayton Athletic Director Neil Sullivan and new Dayton Flyers coach Anthony Grant look at the program the same way.

“We both look at it as a destination job,” Sullivan said Thursday, hours after UD announced the hiring of Grant.

Dayton’s last three coaches have used the program as a stepping stone, leaving for jobs at Clemson, Georgia Tech and Indiana. Grant, 50, played for Dayton from 1983-87, so he has more connection to the program than Oliver Purnell, Brian Gregory, and Archie Miller. He’s also older than those three coaches were they were hired — Purnell was 40 in 1994, Gregory was 36 in 2003 and Miller was 32 in 2011 — and at a different point in his career.

That doesn’t mean Grant will stay forever, but his hiring could bring long-term stability to the program.

“If you have high-caliber people, there’s a demand for that,” Sullivan said. “I think we acknowledge that. I’m never going to shy away from trying to attract the highest-quality performers we can. At the same time, you want to provide an environment where personal interest meets organizational need. I’m not trying to predict the future. At the end of the day, we’re certainly looking long term, but things change rapidly in this business. We were only interested in people who view the University of Dayton as a destination job.”

JohnW22 wrote:
This year McKinley Wright was the backup plan if Scruggs didn't come and I felt Wright would be an easy get if Xavier needed him.

Dayton fans are talking about Wright next he's the next big thing and he was just a backup plan for Xavier.

Wright (6-0, 180), whom Scout.com ranks the No. 2 point guard in the state of Minnesota, is considering Memphis, Minnesota (which he visits Sept. 2), Dayton (Sept. 9) and Xavier (Sept. 23).

After his official visit to the Gophers last week, Champlin Park senior point guard McKinley Wright tweeted that he would announce his college decision on September 15th at a school ceremony.

Wright still plans to take a trip to Dayton this week. But his two other visits to Memphis and Xavier were cancelled. That means it's down to Minnesota and Dayton, Wright confirmed Tuesday night.

JohnW22 wrote:I think Grant was nice pickup. This is just how I feel and it's no bash at Dayton at all but watching their fans panick over McKinley Wright(3 star point guard) staying or leaving just reminds me of Xavier's recruiting in the A-10. This year Wright was the backup plan if Scruggs didn't come and I felt Wright would be an easy get if Xavier needed him. 5 years ago Xavier would be fighting tooth and nail for a guy like Wright but now they got a player like Scruggs without too much worry. Dayton fans are talking about Wright next he's the next big thing(which he could be, and this is how Xavier fans felt about boarderline 3/4 stars 5 years ago) and he was just a backup plan for Xavier.