MACON, Ga. — Greg Gary has officially stepped in as Mercer University's new men's head basketball coach.
This comes after the program fired former head coach Bob Hoffman last month. The team went 11-20 this season and was knocked out of the SoCon tourney in the quarterfinals.
Mercer held a press conference Wednesday at noon in Hawkins Arena to introduce Gary, who was the former assistant coach at Purdue University and has helped lead the team to three consecutive Sweet 16 appearances.
At the conference, Deputy Director of Athletics for Academic Affairs and Senior Woman Administrator Sybil Blalock says they look forward to building with Gary and elevating their program.
"If you've been around Coach Gary at all, you can't help but be drawn to him, because of the passion that he has, and because of the core values that he has," Blalock said.
Director of Athletics Jim Cole said he and Blalock traveled for two weeks all over the country in an 'intense' process to find the right person for the job.
While going through the hiring process, Gary explained Mercer 'checked a lot of boxes' for him, including good people, good tradition, and a great conference.
"The people were tremendous," Gary said, referring to Cole, Blalock, and the university's president, Bill Underwood. He said all of them welcomed his family to Macon.
Gary went on to thank the legacy and tradition Hoffman built before him.
"Coach Hoffman, I want to thank him, because he got this program started in the right direction and is a great, great man, so I wanted to make sure that I reached out to him and thanked him for what he has done to this program," Gary said.
He says he plans on bringing what he learned from Purdue's head coach, Matt Painter, to Mercer. Gary was with Purdue's program for eight years, but has over 25 years of experience at the NCAA Division I level.
He says the vision Cole, Blalock and President Underwood all shared was his vision as well, and that Mercer had a great reputation as a school.
Gary says he plans on coaching with toughness, grit and confidence.
"You are going to be proud of the product that is on that court, and you're going to be proud of the product that walks out in that community," Gary said.
And of course, he has plans on taking Mercer to the Big Dance.
"That's where we have to get to. There's going to be some ups and downs, but ultimately the goal is that, and we're going to do it the right way," Gary said.