Anthony Grant, Matt McCall, new A-10 coaches, go way back

Two new Atlantic 10 coaches know each other well and will coach against each other for the first time next season.

Dayton Flyers coach Anthony Grant and Massachusetts coach Matt McCall, who were hired one day apart in March, worked together at the University of Florida for five seasons and were part of the program’s first national championship team in 2006. Grant was an assistant on Florida Gators coach Billy Donovan’s staff from 1996-2006. McCall was a student manager at Florida from 2001-04 and then a graduate assistant for two seasons.

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In an interview with the Bossman Radio Show that aired Monday, Grant called McCall a class act.

“I told Matt when I called to congratulate him on UMass,” Grant said, “when we play each other, we’re just going to call it the Billy D classic, or the Billy Donovan Invitational. We’ll have to come up with a name for it.”

Congrats @MarcusCamby23 on graduating! Honored to be a part of this program. So much history here in large part to these 2!! #UniteTheMasses pic.twitter.com/ASTF4N033u
— Matt McCall (@CoachMattMcCall) May 13, 2017

When Grant left to coach at Virginia Commonwealth in 2006, McCall became director of operations at Florida. He was then an assistant coach at Florida from 2011-15. McCall spent the last two seasons as the head coach at Chattanooga, while Grant was an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Bossman Show (Anthony Grant Interview Replay) on JR The Bossman Show will air 05/15. https://t.co/9HPyi19AEg #BlogTalkRadio
— JR (@JRTheBossman) May 15, 2017