Hard work paying off for Flyers in recruiting

Michigan’s ‘best senior’ chooses UD

By Doug Harris, Staff Writer Updated 9:54 PM Wednesday, August 4, 2010

I was talking to Rod Watts, the Lansing Eastern High School basketball coach, about the success the University of Dayton is having in landing recruits from Michigan.

UD has three current players on its roster from the state — Devin Searcy, Paul Williams and Devin Oliver — and has just committed its two scholarships in the 2011 class to prospects from Michigan: Watts’ star, LaDontae Henton, and Detroit Southeastern’s Percy Gibson.

“The high school coaches here feel very comfortable sending their players to Dayton,” Watts said.

For one, the UD staff has deep ties in the state. Coach Brian Gregory spent 10 years as an assistant at Michigan State, and Flyer assistants Cornell Mann and Jon Borovich grew up in Michigan and played college ball there.

But while those connections certainly have helped, something I hear prep coaches pounding home again and again is how good Gregory and his staff are at building relationships.

That takes work.

“We have 6 a.m. practices, and often times Coach Mann was there before we were,” Watts said in discussing Henton’s commitment. “Coach Gregory wasn’t at the 6 a.m. practices, but he wasn’t sitting back, either. In a lot of cases, the head coach doesn’t get involved until it’s time to seal the deal. But he’s been involved all the way.”

The Flyers have built a pipeline to Dayton-area talent the last few years, which has been a long time coming, but the fertile recruiting ground they’ve found in Michigan has been indispensable, too.

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