Gregory Russell Paulus (born July 3, 1986) is an American

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach and former player who is the head coach of the Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball team. He previously served as an assistant basketball coach for

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

, and

George Washington University , mottoeng = "God is Our Trust" , established = , type = Private federally chartered research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.8 billion (2022) , preside ...

. Paulus is a former multi-sport athlete, playing

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

as a

point guard The point guard (PG), also called the one or the point, is one of the five Basketball positions, positions in a regulation basketball game. A point guard has perhaps the most specialized role of any position. Point guards are expected to run t ...

on the

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

men's

team A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson (academic), Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interde ...

and later

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York. Established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church, the university has been nonsectarian since 1920. Locate ...

Biography

Greg Paulus was born in

Medina, Ohio Medina ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Medina County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,094 at the 2020 Census. It lies about 33 miles (53 km) south of Cleveland and 23 miles (37 km) west of Akron within the Clevelan ...

, and grew up in

Appleton, Wisconsin Appleton ( mez, Ahkōnemeh) is a city in Outagamie, Calumet, and Winnebago counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. One of the Fox Cities, it is situated on the Fox River, southwest of Green Bay and north of Milwaukee. Appleton is the c ...

, before moving to the Syracuse suburb of Manlius, New York. He has six siblings: David, Matt, Dan, Chris, Mike, and Sarah. He was named Gatorade Athlete of the Year due to his accomplishments in football and basketball. Paulus was the quarterback of the 2004 Christian Brothers Academy football team, which won the New York State Championship by defeating

New Rochelle High School New Rochelle High School (NRHS) is a public high school in New Rochelle, New York. It is part of the City School District of New Rochelle and is the city's sole public high school. Its student body represents 60 countries from around the world. I ...

and

Ray Rice Raymell Mourice Rice (born January 22, 1987) is a former American football running back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for six seasons with the Baltimore Ravens. He played college football at Rutgers, where he received first-t ...

41–35 in the title game at the Carrier Dome in Syracuse. Paulus was also named New York State Mr. Basketball following his senior season at CBA. He was ranked as the number one recruit out of high school.

College basketball

Paulus received scholarship offers to play football at the

University of Miami The University of Miami (UM, UMiami, Miami, U of M, and The U) is a private research university in Coral Gables, Florida. , the university enrolled 19,096 students in 12 colleges and schools across nearly 350 academic majors and programs, incl ...

and Notre Dame. He also received basketball scholarship offers from Duke, Syracuse, Georgetown,

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. He chose to play basketball and joined the Duke Blue Devils.

Freshman

Games: 36, PPG: 6.7, RPG: 2.8, APG: 5.2 Paulus was a member of the Duke team that finished with a 32–4 record and won the

Atlantic Coast Conference The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) is a collegiate athletic conference located in the eastern United States. Headquartered in Greensboro, North Carolina, the ACC's fifteen member universities compete in the National Collegiate Athletic Associa ...

(ACC) regular season and tournament championship. Paulus led the ACC in assists per game at 5.2. He set a Duke freshman record for assists in a game with 15 (with three turnovers) in a 104–77 home victory over Valparaiso on December 18, 2005; that assist total was only one away from the all-time single-game Duke record of 16, set by NCAA career assist leader

Bobby Hurley Robert Matthew Hurley (born June 28, 1971) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Arizona State Sun Devils. He was previously the head coach at the University at Buffalo. As a college ...

. He was selected for the All-America freshman 2nd team. His 187 assists ranked third behind

(288 in 1990) and Jay Williams (220 in 2000) among the freshman assist leaders in Duke history.

Sophomore

Games: 33, PPG: 11.8, RPG: 2.2, APG: 3.8, FG%: 45.6 Paulus injured his foot during the preseason. After the season, associate coach Chris Collins said Paulus struggled because he had a

tarsal coalition Tarsal coalition is an abnormal connecting bridge of tissue between two normally-separate tarsal bones. The term 'coalition' means a coming together of two or more entities to merge into one mass. The tissue connecting the bones, often referred ...

, and it was corrected through surgery; he has since fully recovered. He had a career-high on March 15, 2007 with 25 points against Virginia Commonwealth.

Junior

Games: 34, PPG: 11.4, RPG: 2.1, APG: 3.2 Paulus led Duke to a 28–6 record including an 89–78 victory over rival UNC in which Paulus led Duke in scoring with 18 points. Paulus led the Atlantic Coast Conference in assist to turnover ratio during the 2007–08 season, and shot over 42 percent from beyond the arc on his way to making 82 three point field goals.

Senior

After being the starting point guard for three years, Paulus started only five games during his senior season. Paulus averaged 16 minutes a game, in part due to the development of sophomore guard

Nolan Smith Nolan Derek Smith (born July 25, 1988) is an American former professional basketball player who is currently an assistant men's basketball coach for the Louisville Cardinals. He played college basketball for Duke before being drafted 21st overa ...

Football

Paulus announced on May 14, 2009, that he would play

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

. Paulus was named the starting quarterback for the 2009 season. He won four games and lost eight during his lone season at Syracuse, completing 67.7 percent of his passes and throwing for 2,025 yards and 13 touchdowns, and threw a school and Big East record 5 interceptions in one game against South Florida.

Professional career

Paulus tried out with the

New Orleans Saints The New Orleans Saints are a professional American football team based in New Orleans. The Saints compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) South division. Since 1975, the te ...

in May 2010. Contrary to initial reports, he was not offered a contract. He got another shot with the Saints in June 2010 when he was again invited to minicamp.

Coaching career

Paulus was hired as an assistant basketball coach at

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

in August 2010. Paulus was hired as the basketball video coordinator for Ohio State University in May 2011. Paulus was promoted to assistant coach for Ohio State University in the summer of 2013 In the fall of 2017, Paulus left Ohio State and was hired to be an assistant coach for the

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

under interim head coach

David Padgett David Christopher Padgett (born February 13, 1985) is an American former basketball coach and player. As a college basketball player, he had played for the Kansas Jayhawks before transferring and finishing his career at Louisville. High school ...

. Paulus was not retained for assistant under new Louisville head coach Chris Mack following the end of the season. Paulus was then hired as an assistant coach for the

George Washington Colonials men's basketball The George Washington Colonials men's basketball team represents George Washington University in the United States' capital, Washington, D.C. It plays its home games in the Charles E. Smith Center, which is also shared with other George Washin ...

for the 2018–2019 season and following this season, he returned to

New York State New York, officially the State of New York, is a state in the Northeastern United States. It is often called New York State to distinguish it from its largest city, New York City. With a total area of , New York is the 27th-largest U.S. stat ...

and joined the Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball team to be an assistant coach on

Patrick Beilein Patrick Jonathan Beilein (born March 23, 1983) is an American former basketball player and current coach. He is the head coach of the Baldwinsville Bees boys varsity basketball team in Baldwinsville NY. Beilein has served as an American college ...

's staff. On October 24, 2019, Paulus was named Niagara's interim head coach after Beilein resigned for "personal reasons". It was later announced that Paulus would become the permanent head coach.

Head coaching record

Awards and honors

Awards are for basketball unless otherwise noted. * Gatorade Male Athlete of the Year (all sports) *2005 Gatorade New York state Player of the Year *Four-time all-state *All-America status in 2005 according to McDonald's, ''Parade'', EA and Student Sports *New York State Mr. Basketball as a senior *National High School Coaches Association senior athlete of the year *2004 Gatorade National Football Player of the Year *USA Basketball Junior National Select team for the 2005 Nike Hoops Summit *2005–06 Freshman All-America Second Team *2006 ACC All-Tournament Second Team *2007-08 Third team All-ACC selection *2008 Third Team Academic All-America *2009 Third Team Academic All-America *Three-time ACC All-Academic teamThe NCAA Tournament's Best Students: Duke's Greg Paulus
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References

External links

Syracuse Orange bioESPN profileDuke Blue Devils bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paulus, Greg 1986 births Living people American football quarterbacks American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from New York (state) Basketball coaches from Ohio Basketball players from New York (state) Basketball players from Ohio College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Duke Blue Devils men's basketball players George Washington Colonials men's basketball coaches Louisville Cardinals men's basketball coaches McDonald's High School All-Americans Navy Midshipmen men's basketball coaches Niagara Purple Eagles men's basketball coaches Ohio State Buckeyes men's basketball coaches Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) People from Manlius, New York People from Medina, Ohio Point guards S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications alumni Sportspeople from Greater Cleveland Syracuse Orange football players