Dayton basketball: Greer reflects on nine seasons with Flyers

Apr. 29—The path DaRon Holmes II took to the University of Dayton began when Dayton Flyers associate head coach, Ricardo Greer, visited Montverde Academy in Orlando, Fla., in 2020.

Greer watched Montverde play Shadow Mountain High School, a team from Arizona coached by former NBA point guard Mike Bibby. A friend of Greer's who lived in Orlando knew the trainer from Shadow Mountain. Greer met the trainer at that game, and the friend stayed in touch with the trainer.

The game took place before the pandemic shut the sports world down that March. Months later, while Greer and Dayton head coach Anthony Grant were passing the time working out their sons, RJ Greer and Makai Grant, at home, Greer received a call from that friend.

"Hey, Rick, my friend in Arizona has a kid that loves Dayton," the friend told Greer. "Obi Toppin is his favorite player. He's the No. 1 player in Arizona."

Greer's first thought was, "Get out of here.

There's no way a top-40 recruit from across the country would be interested in Dayton, Greer assumed, even though the Flyers had just finished a 29-2 season with Toppin winning all the major national player of the year awards.

Still, Greer got Holmes on the phone.

"What's up, bud?" Greer said.

"I'm so sad about what happened to you guys, man," Holmes told him. "You guys had a chance to win the whole thing."

"We would love to recruit you," Greer said.

That was the first step in Dayton landing the program's biggest recruit this century. Holmes scored 1,745 points in three seasons and delivered an All-American performance as a junior when he led Dayton to its first NCAA tournament victory in nine years.

That's one recruiting story Greer will tell for years. He has many more from nine seasons on Grant's staff. He was the lead recruiter for all the future NBA players the Flyers have landed during Grant's tenure: Toppin; Toumani Camara; DaRon Holmes; and Koby Brea.

That's why the Flyer Faithful fretted earlier this month when news broke that Greer was leaving Dayton to become the associate head coach on Jeff Capel's staff at Pittsburgh. The hire was officially announced on Monday, April 27.

For Greer, who played at Pitt from 1997-2001 and ranks eighth in school history in scoring with 1,753 points, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

"This was a very, very, very hard decision because I didn't want to leave," Greer told the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday, April 28. "It's hard to leave Dayton, but there was one place I've always looked at and said, 'If I can go back to where it all started for me, that would be unbelievable.'"

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Greer will be one of three new assistant coaches on Capel's staff. The program also announced the hiring of Ronald Ramon, a 2008 Pitt graduate. It promoted Billy Hubly from assistant athletic director to assistant coach.

"Ricardo, Ronald and Billy each bring something special to our program, Capel said in a press release. "Ricardo and Ronald are Pitt men. They've lived this program, they've competed at the highest level, and they understand what it means to wear Pitt on your chest. Billy has been an invaluable part of what we've built here over the last three years, and his promotion is well-deserved. Together, we have assembled a staff that will elevate every aspect of our program.

Greer had many previous chances to leave Dayton and work as an assistant coach elsewhere. He said he had more than 10 interviews in nine seasons and received just as many job offers from high-major programs and schools from the top four conferences.

Greer turned down the offers because he felt he had something special at Dayton.

"I always felt that we can do it at Dayton," he said, "and we were able to do a lot of special things, you know."

His alma mater had never offered him a job, though.

"I came in as a boy," Greer said, "and they turned me into a man at the University of Pittsburgh through ups and downs. I was coached by two amazing coaches, Ralph Willard and Ben Howland. But the most important thing was my relationship with the community and the friends that I was able to build throughout my career.

"I still have so many amazing friends there, and there are amazing donors and boosters that were there when I was there and are still there. I'm going back to help coach Capel and the rest of the staff as best as I can to get back to the NCAA tournament and do something special."

Greer's family urged him to take the Pitt job. His son RJ, an Alter High School graduate who played for Davidson last season, is already out of the house. Greer was in Greensboro, N.C., on Tuesday to help him find an apartment at his second college, UNC Greensboro.

Greer's wife, Misty, and daughter, Maddison, will continue living in Springboro for the next year because Maddison will be a senior at Alter High School in the 2026-27 academic year. Greer will travel back and forth from Pittsburgh to Springboro as often as he can to visit them — and vice versa.

With older kids, it was easier for Greer to make this decision now than a few years ago. Still, it's a bittersweet move because Greer described the last nine years as one of the best periods of his life.

"Being able to come into a community and have the community just take me and my family in and treat us the way that we were treated, it was just unbelievable," Greer said. "Working at UD, being a coach at UD. It's been amazing. It's been unbelievable. We've been able to foster so many relationships, which have been second to none. My kids grew up in Dayton. My son graduated from high school in Dayton and won a state championship in basketball."

Greer had two years of experience in college coaching on Donnie Jones' staff at Central Florida when he joined Grant's first staff in 2017. Now he's a veteran coach. He praised Grant for taking a chance on him and helping him grow.

"My goal when I got the job at Dayton was to prove him right and prove to him that he made the best decision when he hired me," Greer said.

Greer called Grant a mentor and a brother.

"It's just been something that you could only wish for," Greer said.

Greer had long conversations with Neil Sullivan, UD's Director of Athletics, before taking the new job. Sullivan and UD President Eric F. Spina tried to convince him to stay.

"But, at the end of the day, they understood that this was different for me," Greer said. "It wasn't like I was going to Wake Forest or anywhere else. This is somewhere where I had a lot of deep roots and ties. It wasn't about money. It was about going back home, where I started."

Greer joins a program that finished 13-20 in the 2025-26 season. It was Pittsburgh's fifth losing season in Capel's eight seasons. Pitt hasn't enjoyed a sustained run of success since Howland and then Jamie Dixon led the program to 13 NCAA tournament appearances in 15 seasons (2002-16).

Even as he embarks on his third job as an assistant coach, Greer knows he wants to be a head coach someday.

"Yeah, 150%, that's my goal," he said, "and I think the nine years that I've spent at Dayton have helped me become the best version of myself. Hopefully, I get the opportunity to be a head coach sooner rather than later. I've interviewed for head coaching positions. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten one yet, but I'm going to keep doing whatever it takes to try to get the right one and start my own program and do it the right way."

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Greer knew of Capel through Johnny Dawkins, who is a former Duke player like Capel. Dawkins kept Greer on staff at Central Florida for the 2016-17 season when UCF fired Donnie Jones after the 2015-16 season.

Pittsburgh hired Capel in 2018. Before his first season, the Panthers played Dayton in a closed-door scrimmage at Denison University in Granville. That's where Greer started to build a relationship with Capel.

At that same scrimmage, Pittsburgh coaches got their first glance at Toppin, who sat out the previous season as a redshirt. Capel and assistant coach Tim O'Toole came up to Greer after the game to ask, "Who the hell was that?"

No one knew then just how much Toppin would blossom in the next two seasons, but Greer saw the potential when he first recruited Toppin in the spring of 2017. Greer's recruitment of Toppin will go down as his lasting legacy at UD.

"We both started as rookies," Greer said, "and we built an unbelievable relationship."

Toppin and many former Flyers congratulated Greer on getting the Pittsburgh job.

"Every kid that I was able to help bring to Dayton," Greer said, "they're always going to be special to me, regardless of how they did on the court."

Greer did play a role in recruiting this spring for Dayton. He helped the Flyers land Aiden Derkack, the highest-ranked recruit since Holmes to pick the Flyers, and also played a part in the recruitment of Ole Miss transfer Travis Perry.

Dayton added six transfers in six days and now has 14 scholarship players on the 2026-27 roster.

"I'm excited for the length," Greer said. "I'm excited for the athleticism. I think this group will be different than last year's group. Like AG says, 'You don't know what you've got until you look under the hood.' How do they mesh? But they did an amazing job bringing these guys in, and I'm excited. I'm a Dayton Flyers fan for the rest of my life, and if the Pitt Panthers are not playing, I'll be sitting down watching the Dayton Flyers hoop."

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