June 24, 2008

University of Dayton men's basketball coach Brian Gregory has announced that Cornell Mann will join the Flyer basketball coaching staff, effective immediately. Mann replaces Anthony Solomon, who left the Flyers earlier in the spring to return to Notre Dame.

Mann, 36, has spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Western Michigan, where he helped the Broncos win three Mid-American Conference West Division championships. With Mann on the staff, WMU experienced some of the most sustained success in school history with five-straight top-two finishes in the MAC West, including division titles in 2004, 2005 and 2008.

He was also part of two post-season teams at Western in 2004 (NCAA) and 2005 (NIT), and had five players he coached named All-MAC guards.

"I'm very happy that Cornell is joining our basketball family," Gregory said. "I've known him since his playing days at Akron, and to watch his development as a coach since then has been a real treat. He is the kind of coach who connects to student-athletes on and off the court. He has the talent to help them improve as players and the respect to get the most out of them. He has the total package, he can recruit, he can coach and he is a tremendous fit for our program."

"I'm excited about the opportunity to coach at the University of Dayton," Mann said. I know I will be working with a lot of good people. The situation speaks for itself. From top to bottom, it's a big-time basketball program. I'm looking forward to coming in and being an aggressive part of making it even better."

Before joining Steve Hawkins' staff at Western Michigan, Mann spent two seasons at Central Michigan, highlighted by a MAC Tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance in 2002-03. CMU defeated Creighton in the NCAA first round before falling to Duke.

Prior to his arrival at CMU, Mann spent two seasons as the head coach at Oak Park High School near Detroit. During the same time he was also an assistant coach with the Michigan Mustangs (17-and-under) AAU team.

Mann's collegiate experience also includes assistant coaching stops at Colby Community College in Colby, Kansas (1998-99), and Elmira College in Elmira, N.Y. (1997-98). At Colby, he served as interim head coach for his one season there.

The Royal Oak Township, Michigan native was an all-state performer at Ferndale High School, where he earned league MVP accolades and a nomination to the McDonald's High School All-America Team. He signed with the University of Colorado upon graduation and was a member of the 1991 Postseason NIT Final Four squad.

Mann transferred to Akron for his final three years of eligibility and was named the program's top defensive player while ranking among the league leaders in steals. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Family Development from Akron in 1995.

Dayton was 23-11 in 2007-08, and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NIT, losing to eventual champion Ohio State in Columbus. The Flyers graduated All-Atlantic 10 guard Brian Roberts, but return their next three scorers and top three rebounders - forward Chris Wright (10.4, 5.7), guard Marcus Johnson (10.1, 5.1) and forward Charles Little (8.0, 4.6). Wright was named to the A-10 All-Rookie team even though he played in just one conference game.