ONE ON ONE WITH GENE CROSS

By Mark Myers

Gene Cross is an impressive man. At 6-3, he looks like an athlete that should still be on the court. But it's more than his appearance that make him impressive. When he walks in a room, people take notice. He's friendly and he's confident. And he's a man on a mission. He's been preparing to be a head coach, and now he has his opportunity at Toledo.

I spoke with Cross yesterday after the television cameras were gone and most of the standing room only crowd had departed.

Recruiting is always a hot topic for Rocket fans, so I asked what his immediate plans were for completing the 2008 recruiting class. Cross said that he has already received calls from high school coaches and AAU contacts who have told him they have players he may be interested in. "If we need to fill any scholarships, there are players out there, and I will be able to tap into my resources whether it's a transfer or someone ready to play next season."

As a recruiter for Notre Dame, Cross had a built in advantage because of name recognition and membership in the Big East. I asked him how he would effectively  recruit for Toledo. "You have to go out and beat the bushes and turn over every stone. Recruiting is tough, but the relationships that I have built over the years can help bridge the gap from Notre Dame to Toledo. I think we can get good players here that can compete with any team at any level."

UT hasn't had much success in recent years getting top players out of Toledo. One of those players, Zach Hillesland from St John's, is now at Notre Dame. Cross wasn't there when Hillesland was recruited, but I asked him what we need to do to get more of the quality local players. "You have to recruit locally because it builds local interest. At the same time you have to recruit good players. If there's a good player in Michigan, then I want to get him. If there's a good player in Chicago, then I want to get him. If there's a good player in Toledo, the I have to get him. I want to get good local players, but I'm going to get good players, period. If a great player is in Texas, so be it, but for the most part I want to recruit the best players locally. What we need to do is put a stake in the ground and make a circle around Toledo and say this is our recruiting base"

Cross met with the current UT players on Friday, and he said they were very receptive to him. "They listened very closely and I think they were relieved. Their presence here at the press conference means a level of commitment and a lot to me. I plan on giving them my everything because they are the most important piece of the puzzle."

I asked Cross how much the renovated Savage Hall will mean to him as a recruiting tool. "Anytime you can show a huge level of commitment from the administration to the coaching staff that you're going to have the best facility in the league, you can go out and sell that. You can give a hard sell about the school's commitment to being great."

Cross will need to think about putting his staff together in the next few weeks. He said, "You have to be prepared when you get that call. I have thought about it and I have some people in mind. I won't rush into it because staff chemistry is very important." Cross said that players can tell if the staff chemistry isn't good, and he's seen those situations.

When I asked Gene Cross about his career as a player at Illinois, he laughed and said he was doing a lot of what we were doing during the interview (sitting). Cross may not have seen much playing time, but he had a great experience and got his degree from a fine academic institution. That was important to him.

There's been quite a bit of interest about the style of play that Cross' teams will have. He said during the press conference that he wanted a tough defense, players diving for loose balls and hitting the defensive boards. I asked him about the type of offense he wanted to implement. "I like the way we played at Notre Dame. You can give players a certain amount of freedom, but teach them how to be disciplined and share the basketball. We (Notre Dame) led the nation in assists last year, so it will be a team concept. It will be a motion offense, with certain rules, but I won't restrict them. We'll try to get up and down the floor, put the ball in the hole and steal points in transition. We will be a very smart team."

Cross has all of the attributes to be a successful coach. He cares about his players. He wants them to succeed academically and on the court. And he's known as one of the top recruiters in America. It took a while for this coaching search to end, but in Gene Cross Toledo has a winner.