Bulls Basketball Flashback to Gregory's 2018 Excitement for "Phase 2"

[Brad]

From April 6, 2018

 

GREGORY EXCITED FOR 'PHASE TWO' AFTER BUILDING IN YEAR ONE

April 06, 2018

By TOM ZEBOLD

USF Senior Writer
 
TAMPA, APRIL 6, 2018 – Head coach Brian Gregory, the architect of USF men's basketball, is excited about "phase two" of his program building project after laying a solid foundation in his first run with the Bulls.
 
Just over a year after his introductory press conference, Gregory had a chance to reflect on the encouraging progress the improving Bulls made in 2017-18. Among the steps forward USF took were reaching double-digit victories for the first time since 2013-14 and tripling its conference win total from the prior season.
 
"You've got to give the credit to the guys. The returners bought into a new system, a culture shift and a new way of doing things, and made great progress in the classroom, as people, as players during that time," Gregory said.
 
"The new guys coming in, be it as a transfer from another program, or a freshman that didn't know what he was getting into, those guys all bought in as well and did a great job of embracing the total program of excellence thought," Gregory continued. "We're going to do our very best and do everything we can and need to do to be successful in the classroom, as a man, and as a player."
 
Following Gregory's hard-working philosophy, Bulls across the board saw their games steadily grow by the time USF won consecutive conference contests to close out the regular season. That back-to-back league victory accomplishment hadn't been done by USF since 2016 and in the process, the Bulls handed Memphis its most lopsided home loss in 19 years.
 
USF gave Memphis another tough battle in the first round of the conference tournament, a 79-77 loss that showed the future looks bright with a fantastic freshman. Conference all-rookie team member David Collins backed up his prestigious honor by becoming just the
fifth freshman in USF history to score 30 points in a game.
 
"You want to have a program that is always playing its best basketball in late February and March," Gregory said. "It's not the scale we want, but I thought you saw that."
 
'Phase Two' Components
Achieving greater success down the road will require the Bulls to keep progressing in numerous key areas that Gregory has outlined for "phase two."

• EXCELLENCE IN CLASSROOM: Aside from taking positive steps on the court in 2017-18, Gregory's program pulled off an academic slam dunk in the fall by placing 11 student-athletes on the USF Athletics Honor Roll. Gregory has put a priority on making sure current and future Bulls stay on track to graduate in four years. Gregory also wants to make program history in academics as well.

"We have some guys here, because of how well they did in their first year here, they're putting themselves in position down the road to become Academic All-Americans, to do some unique things that this program hasn't maybe seen before – the combination of the academic excellence and the excellence on the court," Gregory said.
 

• STRONG LEADERSHIP: Solid teams in any collegiate sport usually have a group of go-to student-athletes to guide the team when coaches aren't around. Now that USF's roster is used to Gregory's philosophy, he wants to develop a core leadership group and give more power to the players.

"So many times in the situation we were in last year, just because of the dynamics of the team, it was tough for anybody to emerge as a true leader, or any group of guys to emerge as core leaders," Gregory said. "Either there was a newness to the program, or they were only going to be here 10 months, or they were young. I saw some potential with that and now we need to cultivate that. The best programs are player led. I think that's a big key."
 

• CLOSER, 'CONNECTED' TEAMMATES: Gregory knows having a close-knit group is something important for 2018-19 after the Bulls made initial progress in this area last season with a new-look roster.  

"I think a big thing always in the cultural shift we're trying to make is really emphasizing building great teammates and what it means to be a great teammate, a connected teammate," Gregory said. "I think that's a big part of what we need to really work on over this next year as well."
 

• BETTER BRAND OF BASKETBALL: Reaching 10 wins was a USF first since 2013-14, but Gregory and the Bulls want much more. Taking the next step in building a consistent winner will involve total dedication from every Bull on the roster to enhance their games.

"The basketball piece (of phase two) is we're not good enough, so you've got to get better," Gregory said. "We had outstanding individual performances at times, but we have to get better. Our returning players all have to get better. We've got to get our new guys buying into the fact that every day is an opportunity to get better. We can't waste any time on that."

[Gat-Rat Bull]

I can't wait to see what Phase 3 brings!

[DELdaBull]

Good coach. Period

[Cornada]

Nice to have a MBB team that is getting better each year since CBG took over.