Former Gopher Grier Finishing Degree, Mentoring Current Players
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After leading the University of Minnesota basketball team to an NCAA Tournament, Vincent Grier spent 10 years playing overseas.
He's back finishing up his degree and spending some time trying to get pride restored in the current program. WCCO's Mike Max paid a visit and found out he wants basketball in his future.
He knew how to get to the basket and he knew how to score with his patented move. The scoop shot.
"You've got the defender beat and it still goes in. That's what it's called, the Grier scoop," he said.
Vincent Grier went from the Gophers to an overseas career that taught him more than basketball.
"Seeing what they go through, the poverty, thinking the poverty that I go through in America, It's not the same. People out there living in shacks," Grier said.
At age 32, he's finishing his up his degree at the University of Minnesota. And he knows what he wants to do: Coach.
In fact, he's been mentoring some of the current Gophers through, shall we say, a bad stretch.
"The kids, they have to put in the work as well and I think they're doing it. With me mentoring them on the side with me being here, I'm talking to them and telling them what it means really to wear this maroon and gold," Grier said.
What he wants them to know is what he found out: That Williams Arena can be special.
"I guarantee you the seats will fill up and when it does it's going to be the greatest thing that you'll ever witness. That's what I told them," Grier said.
And what he wants to be one day is a players' coach with a definite philosophy.
"Because I believe if you're a players' coach you let your players play, understand and let them learn on the floor, I think you'll have a successful program," Grier said.
