By Michael A. Lough

The Sports Report

centralgasports@gmail.com

          When Greg Gary showed up nearly five years ago to be introduced as Mercer’s new head men’s basketball, he had just come from the NCAA Tournament as part of Purdue’s staff.

          Returning to the dance in orange and black was a priority.

          “There is nothing like it,” he said. “It’s hard to explain unless you’ve gone through it yourself. I want them to feel how special that is, so that’s what motivates me to get them to the level, that hopefully we can achieve that.”

          Alas, that won’t happen.

          The school made it official Monday afternoon with short four-paragraph release that “the contract of men’s basketball head coach Greg Gary will not be renewed.”

          The first social media reports appeared Monday around 12:30 p.m., with the move that came as no surprise, except perhaps in that it came a year later than many expected.

          Mercer lost 70-57 to top-seeded Samford on Saturday at the Southern Conference Tournament.

          Gary did comment on building on this year in 2024-25.

          “Looking forward to it,” he said in the postgame press conference. “Especially the guys coming back learned something from this past month or so, and how important it is to start off the conference right, so we wouldn’t be in this situation where we’re playing on the first day.

          “We’ve got some really good pieces coming back, so I’m very excited about getting on the recruiting trail and adding a couple, and the guys coming back getting to work.”

The Gary Years
Year All/Conf
2019-20      17-15/11-7
2020-21      18-11/8-9
2021-22      16-17/8-10
2022-23      14-19/6-12
2023-24      16-17/8-10

          Gary was in the final year of a five-year contract, and basically entered the season as a lame duck, with no extension on the horizon.

         After Mercer’s weekly media luncheon last Monday, Gary was asked one on one by The Central Georgia Sports Report about his contract status, and said simply he was focused on The Citadel, Mercer’s first-round opponent in the Southern Conference Tournament, and wasn’t talking about anything else.

          Athletics director Jim Cole was asked the same thing afterward as well, and also declined comment.

          Mercer is now looking for two new head coaches. Women’s head coach Susie Gardner resigned the day after the Bears’ season-ending loss to Chattanooga, ending a sterling 14-year run with a decision very few saw coming, although her contract was up, too.

          Gary departs with an 81-79 record at Mercer. For coaches with at least four seasons, that ranks third at Mercer (50.9 percent) behind Bob Hoffman ((209-165, 55.9, 11 seasons) and Bill Bibb (222-194, 53.4, 15 seasons).

          The quiet 10-year anniversary of Mercer’s 78-71 win over Duke approaches. But since then, Mercer has had only four winning seasons, topped by 19-16 and two 19-15s, the latter one year before the Bears went 11-20 and Bob Hoffman was fired.

          Gary was hired on March 26, 2019, and introduced on April 3, joined by his wife, mother, and older brothers Jeff and Mark at Hawkins Arena for the press conference.

          He came with the quality resume programs of Mercer’s level look for: Power 5 and NCAA Tournament experience, mid-major experience, some time in a familiar or similar geographic region, and pretty much success the majority of the time, as well as being a candidate for other jobs.

          Gary's name had been attached to openings at his alma mater, Tulane, as well as LSU, Southern Illinois, Ohio, among others, in some form or fashion.

          He took the head coaching job at Centenary in 2008, and resigned two years later after the school decided to drop from Division I to III.

          Gary has been an assistant at Tulane and Centenary twice each, as well as McNeese State, Miami, South Florida, and Purdue.

          Gary’s first staff was Bobby Kummer, Kim Lewis, and Juan Cardona, with D.J. Byrd as director of operations.

          The staff that left the court Saturday after the season-ending loss to Samford was Kummer, Lewis, and Byrd, as well as Ryne Smith.

Byrd was promoted in July of 2020 to his first on-court coaching job after Cardona resigned after two seasons and ended up at Southern Miss in May of 2022. Smith followed the same path, moving up to the bench staff entering this season.

The team’s website doesn’t list a director of operations for this year.

          The Golden Eagles roster for 2022-23 included former Bears Neftali Alvarez and Felipe Haase, both of whom were high school players of Cardona’s at Miami and transferred in. Alvarez finished his eligibility Saturday as a grad student after USM’s Sun Belt tourney loss to fall to 16-16.

          That has been the only true change in Mercer’s coaching staff under Gary. Mercer went 35-26 in the staff’s first two seasons, and 30-36 the next two before 16-17 this year.

          Of the underclassmen on the 2021-22 roster, Alvarez was one of three who didn’t return, along with Jovan Tucker (Central Georgia Tech) and Jacksen Greco (Division II Anderson).

          A year ago, Mercer listed five players honored a few weeks ago on senior day: Kamar Robertson, Harrison Drake, Luis Hurtado Jr., Diego Rivera, and John Treanor. Hurtado was a graduate, and Treanor was listed as a junior. Jalen Cobb was a graduate.

          This year, Mercer honored Cobb, Amanze Ngumezi, Robby Carmody, Jalyn McCreary, and Cobb.

          Cobb is again listed as a graduate. Carmody transferred in from Notre Dame for a year, McCreary is a redshirt senior, and Ngumezi a little-used backup graduate student.

          With the COVID year eligibility addition, it’s still tough to tell what players on rosters are seniors with eligibility, since few colleges clarify that. Being a senior doesn’t necessarily mean eligibility has expired.

          As per the posted roster, Mercer has those three graduate students, and McCreary as a senior, with the rest of the team made up of two juniors, four sophomores, and five freshmen.

          Freshmen Jake Davis and David Thomas as well as sophomore Jah Quinones had solid years, and Veterans grad T.J. Grant, a sophomore got back on the court regularly after finally getting healthy. Juniors Caleb Hunter and Alex Holt had decent years as well.

          But how many return is, as it is with most college programs, the question. Reportedly, some of the freshman have discussed sticking together rather than all transfer.

          Gary just completed the final year of his contract. He was on the speculative hot seat last year.

          In 2022-23, against regular-season co-champs Furman and Samford, Mercer lost by 18, 3, 9, and one in OT. But Mercer lost by 29 and 17 to Chattanooga, 28 to Western Carolina, and 20 to UNC Greensboro.

          The Bears lost by three to former Atlantic Sun rival – and soon NCAA-bound – Kennesaw State by three in early December, but also fell to 7-win Georgia State in overtime.

          Mercer had 10 losses by 10 points or less, and five by 15 or more. The Bears went 1-15 against teams in quadrant 1 and 2 teams (home games against top-75 NET, 51-100 neutral, and 76-135 away).

          Troy at No. 136 was Mercer’s highest-ranked victim last year. And the Bears beat only two teams that currently had winning records.

          Yet Gary stayed, as per reportedly a mutual decision with Mercer and Gary, Mercer, sources say, willing to wait out a season and perhaps save some buyout money.

          Without a contract extension – though not many on the outside realized it, since private schools don’t have to release contract information – that’s how he and his staff entered this season, basically as lame ducks.

          And then the Bears opened with a stunning loss to a very weak Division II HBCU, Clark Atlanta, which went 8-20 in 2022-23. As it turns out, that wasn’t as horrific a loss as many thought. The Panthers are 23-6 after being surprised in the SIAC Tournament quarterfinal on Friday.

          The Bears were more consistent in 2023-24, with only one conference loss of more than 14 points, a tough-to-figure 33-point defeat at Western Carolina. They went 8-6 in non-conference play, boosted by three non-Division I opponents, but the only bad loss was by 31 to then-No. 22 Alabama.

          Mercer split in the regular season with tournament top seed Samford, swept UNCG yet lost by 14 and nine to Chattanooga, which tied UNCG for second, and lost both to WCU, which took fourth. The Bears also swept sixth-place Furman

          There was a loss to next-to-last-place The Citadel early in the conference schedule. The Bears lost five conference games by single digits.

          Mercer has ranked below 200 – of about 360 Division I men’s basketball programs – in assorted ratings. The Bears had four wins against teams inside the top 200.

          The Bears unofficially have two non-binding commitments: Mason Smith of Davidson Day in North Carolina, Braeden Carlsen of Wauconda High in Illinois.