Anthony Izzo Las Vegas Nevada

New Tech coach puts fullcourt press on recruits

Taken from former bosses Tom Izzo and Kevin O’Neill, Gregory shared this approach at a coaching seminar, and one of the attendees was an up-and-comer named Josh Postorino, whom Gregory made his second assistant hire. Sitting in the conference room of Tech’s basketball offices last week, Gregory was reminded of the four-a-day quota.

“Yeah, but now it’s closer to eight or nine,” he said. “It’s just where [recruiting] is at and where we’re at.”

On the job since March, Gregory has to hustle for players this summer. With no holdovers from Paul Hewitt’s staff, he and his assistants are trying to jump into the recruitment of more than 20 local high school seniors to restock a Yellow Jackets roster that figures to be among the weakest in the ACC this winter. The 2012 class in Georgia is unusually strong, but that means that Gregory also is competing with high-profile college programs that have been jostling for position for at least a year.

When the Tech coaches in July attend tournaments in Augusta, Las Vegas, Orlando and Myrtle Beach, they’ll make sure prospects notice them in their Georgia Tech polo shirts, but they’ll also have to decide if they want to keep recruiting these individuals. Gregory has never seen most of Tech’s prospects play in person.

“Are we a little bit behind the eight ball [in] recruiting?” Gregory asked. “Yes, we are.”

The 2012 class is Tech’s most urgent agenda item. Gregory and assistants Chad Dollar, Billy Schmidt and Postorino also are trying to make connections with the junior and sophomore classes and entrench themselves in Georgia basketball circles. Wednesday was the first day that coaches could call juniors. The plan was to approach the roughly 50 prospects on their list for contact information, and sell Tech and their vision. They had a small talk prepared, comparing the NBA champion Dallas Mavericks and their team-first style to Gregory’s philosophy.

This month, while NCAA rules prohibit coaches from going on the road to recruit, Gregory and his staff have made repeated calls to seniors, high school coaches and AAU coaches in hope of persuading prospects to make unofficial campus visits.

Miller Grove High’s Tony Parker and Brandon Morris, two of the top recruits in the state, have noticed.

“What they’re taking from it is these guys are pretty persistent, in a good way,” said Miller Grove coach Sharman White, who has been sought out by Tech, too.

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My friends who were involved in the nonprofit world would show me proposals to companies they had written and honestly, I would cringe when I read them. So I just started helping people.

The most inquiries come from new organizations. A common misunderstanding is that they expect people to do it for free. I always ask them if they have a board, a lot of times they say, "Not yet." Because I say, "sometimes you have a board member who would do it for free."

For example, someone might think, "I've got a teen crisis center, here's somebody who funds children and families, they'll give to us." They don't know that maybe this foundation or corporation only gives to education. I have to see if they "get it." Is this really something they are dedicated to or is it a tax shelter for their husband's real estate company?

Let's say I'm a community nonprofit and I'm asking you to write a proposal to a local foundation for $15,000. How would you charge?