Atlantic 10 Best Practices: Dayton Defines Player Development

This blog is all about inspiration. We're in the middle of 3 days elevating best practices from the squads that make up the Atlantic 10 Conference.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.

What makes something a best practice? This isn't about the most intricate experience. It's about looking at the world from your consumer's point of view and delivering something that hits it right smack on the head. In the case of colleges, I'm treating the primary consumer as that prospective student athlete.

Thus far, we've shown how Saint Louis leverages a blog to show student athletes away from the competitive scene (linked here) and how Dayton takes a blog and gives us stories that provide a complete view of their basketball athletes (link here).

I wasn't planning on revisiting Dayton again, but this was just an incredible learning for us. So let's return. Hit the Dayton Athletics home page (here), and let's revisit the GoDaytonHoops site, linked here.



Clicking into the Coaches section pulls up Coach Brian Gregory's profile, shown below.



Now click on Player Development. Check this below.



What you see is a bold statement that resonates with any prospective student athlete.

"Brian Gregory has coached 20 players in the past 15 years that have played in the NBA." And then they are listed.

But Dayton goes deeper. You get first-person takes on Coach Gregory from three of the very guys who he helped get to the next level -- Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleeves, and Eric Snow. Check this example:

"Coach Gregory is the best. He worked every day to help me get better. I could always count on B.G. to be there for me. I could always count on him to be there for me and to be honest with me..." -- Matteen Cleeves.

Feel that integrity and passion. A couple things I loved.

1. The fact that we get a clear look at his track record -- over a guy a year has made it to the next level under Coach Gregory.
2. We actually see some testimonials! First-hand accounts of the relationship between coach and the players.
   
3. The fact that Matteen referred to Coach as B.G. That shows a friendship, and it resonates with young athletes.

How could this be better? I'd love to see a little bit about how Coach developed each player. I say this because I believe he helped each of these 20 student athletes in a different way. Maybe it was off the dribble. Or defensive intensity. Or approach to the offseason. The point is that it is the sum of these individual impacts that could be told, via stories, to really illustrate what Coach Gregory is all about. And the sum of that effort has some deep power.

That's it. Come back Monday as we shift on to our next conference.

You can stay plugged into this journey via this blog, via the Digital Hoops Blast Facebook page (linked here) or on Twitter -- I'm @pawlow34.