He was a grad assistant the last two seasons at Colorado State, working beside one of his former coaches with the Raiders, Brian Cooley. And as he was plotting his next steps, he heard from Wright State coach Clint Sargent, who had just gotten the job and was assembling his first staff.
Landing Gentry, a Raider at heart, didn’t require much of a sales job.
“He was explaining what I was going to be doing, what he viewed the position as, but I was in no matter what the position was. That’s pretty much what happened. He was explaining it, and I was like, ‘I’m in!’” Gentry said.
“Obviously, I love this place. Coach Sargent and coach Cooley are two of the biggest reasons why I wanted to begin coaching anyway — my relationships with them as assistants. I knew it was where I wanted to be.”
The 26-year-old Gentry made 85 starts with the Raiders, and they won two Horizon League regular-season titles and a tourney crown in his three years after transferring from South Dakota State.
His focus now is on helping the program return to those glory days.
“At the time, that was the standard. We had guys like Loudon Love, Bill Wampler, Jordan Ash, Mark Hughes, Alan Vest, Parker Ernsthausen — you just go down the line of older guys who either grew up through the program or transferred in. They were very invested in Wright State,” Gentry said.
“I think that’s what we have this year. Brandon Noel is a Wright State guy. There’s no other way to put it. He was at the games my senior year when he was in high school. But he’s really grown up through the program. Alex Huibregtse is the same way.
“Keaton Norris, Andrew Welage and these older guys are carrying the torch of really loving the program. … At the height of success, that’s what it really boils down to — people who care about the program and care about the guy next to you, and that shows up on the court.”
Sargent wants his staff to be collaborative, and it doesn’t matter if the input comes from 20-somethings like Gentry and Jaaron Simmons or his peers like Travis Trice and Dan Beré.
Gentry, a vocal leader as a player, isn’t shy about sharing his insights.
“He’s far beyond his years in discernment and confidence in all areas. I trust him immensely as a great basketball mind,” Sargent said.
“When you’re at a round table with coaches, it’s important that you unpack opinions maturely and dissect other people’s opinions — not making your opinion the end-all-and-be-all. Young coaches can be overly emotional. He does it in a very self-aware way.”
Credit: Chris Snyder
Credit: Chris Snyder
Gentry averaged 10 points for his career and shot 40.3% from 3 as a senior. He’s also third in school history in career free-throw shooting at 86.6%.
But while he wasn’t gifted with great athleticism, and he learned to get by on guts and guile.
That helps in mentoring others who are working their way up the ranks.
“If you take Brandon, I was never (Horizon League) player of the year. But for most of the guys on the team, I was at one point a young guy trying to find a role. I was at one point a guy who had kind of been around and was becoming a leader on the team. That’s helped me relate to these guys,” he said.
“It does help that I played at Wright State. It kind of gives you that (credibility), and I basically played for coach Sargent as an assistant. They know I’m familiar with everything he wants.”
Gentry is not only indebted to Sargent, but also to his fellow assistants — especially the seasoned ones.
Next to his father, Alan Gentry, no one has impacted him more than them.
“It’s important to have that emotional stability and emotional intelligence within a staff, and I think we do a great job collectively with that — having that balance between the very competitive environment we’re in and also just the day-to-day of being around people you want to be around,” he said.
“They’re easy to talk to, easy to work with, and we can have productive conversations. We are all moving in the same direction.”
Sargent, of course, sets the tone. His motto as a coach is putting the needs of others ahead of himself, and he’s attracted a like-minded staff.
“He’s somebody who connects and is very caring and very aware of people’s emotions — how they’re doing, how things impact certain people. That’s kind of how he was when I was a player,” Gentry said.
“I can remember hundreds of conversations in his office where it was, ‘How are you doing with this?’ Or he’d talk about how I could further myself in something outside of basketball. He was just pushing me to develop as a man.”
SUNDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Cleveland State, 3 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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