April 11, 2005

University of Dayton men's basketball coach Brian Gregory has announced that Reggie Rankin has joined the Flyer basketball coaching staff. Rankin replaces Dave Wojcik, who recently joined his brother Doug at Tulsa University.

Rankin, 38, comes to Dayton from the University of Nebraska, where he was on Barry Collier's staff for five seasons. Before coaching the Cornhuskers, Rankin was an assistant coach at Georgia, the first two under former Flyer Associate Head Coach Ron Jirsa.

"I'm extremely pleased and excited to have a coach with Reggie's credentials join our staff," Gregory said. "He's successfully coached and recruited at the highest levels, and he has worked with some coaches I have a great deal of respect for. He will bring some new ideas with him, and I think that's important if your program is to grow."

"We had a certain type of person we were looking to add to our staff, and Reggie exceeds the standards we had in mind. He is especially strong in the two critical areas for our program -- recruiting and player development."

The Columbus, Ohio native was a two-time All-Ohio player for Linden McKinley High School, and was named first team all-state as a senior in 1985. He then went to Ohio University, where after medically redshirting the 1985-86, he lettered four seasons (current Duquesne coach Danny Nee recruited Rankin, but left OU for Nebraska after Rankin's redshirt season). Rankin was First Team Academic All-Mid American Conference as a senior.

Another MAC school, Bowling Green, is where he began his college coaching career. After spending the 1993-94 season at BG, Rankin coached successive seasons at Boston University, Wyoming and Ohio University before coaching at Georgia beginning in 1997.

"One of the things I was most impressed with is the early success coach Gregory has had," Rankin said. "There's an incredible tradition of basketball at the University of Dayton, and being from Columbus, I remember some of the great Dayton teams while I was growing up. There is a tremendous commitment to basketball here."

"I'm hoping I can come in and help what the other guys on the staff have already started. It's great to come into a situation where great things are already happening."

Rankin holds bachelor's (1989) and master's (1990) degrees in Physical Education (concentration in Athletics Administration) from Ohio University.