Former Carmel Christian star looks to finish Appalachian State basketball career strong

Donovan Gregory made a major first impression on Appalachian State head coach Dustin Kerns, by chance, a couple of years before they paired up in Boone..

The then-Carmel Christian High School sophomore was playing in a basketball tournament in Atlanta, and Kerns, who was an assistant coach at Wofford College at the time, just happened to be there to watch.

But the future Mountaineers head coach was so blown away by Gregory’s performance that Kerns screen-grabbed a picture of the Charlotte native to alert his fellow coaches at Wofford on the recruiting trail.

“I sent it to one of the other assistants at Wofford, and was like ‘Who’s this kid? This Gregory kid, like he’s really good,’” Kerns recalled. “And I shared that with Donovan and was like, ‘Hey, before I even knew you, I had great confidence in you and belief in you from when you were a sophomore in high school.’”

Seven years later, the duo has helped lead the Mountaineers to the best season in program history. At 26-5, the regular-season Sun Belt Conference champions earned a bye entering this week’s Sun Belt Conference Championship Tournament, and they won’t hit the court until the quarterfinals at 11:30 p.m. CT (12:30 ET) Saturday at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla.

Competing for the ‘perfect ending’

Gregory, the program’s all-time leader in wins by a player, returned to the team for his fifth season as a graduate student. That decision has paid off with a special run.

The Mountaineers are on a seven-game winning streak, which was sparked by a double-overtime win against Toledo in February —highlighted by a career-high 24 points by Gregory. The fifth-year swingman is second on the team with 13.0 points, 3.1 assists and 28.2 minutes per game. He also leads the team with 1.1 steals per game.

Gregory, who was named to the All-Sun Belt first-team this season, is in position to lead the Mountaineers to their second Sun Belt Conference title and NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in four years after accomplishing both feats in 2021, when he was a sophomore.

“It would just kind of be like a dream come true,” Gregory said. “I came back for my fifth year here not really knowing how everything would play out, and we’ve made a lot of history this year. And I think that would just be the perfect ending if we could finish it off with a Sun Belt (championship) victory.”

‘History’s hard’

While Kerns — who previously served as the head coach at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina — didn’t end up recruiting Gregory, they were brought together upon their shared arrival on campus in 2019. Since then, Kerns has seen Gregory become a cornerstone of his team and a leader for the program that has gone 96-63 since they both arrived.

Together, Kerns and Gregory have made a considerable amount of historic strides. And this fifth season has solidified them well within program lore.

“History’s hard,” Kerns said. “You’re fighting history and history is hard. And for us to have the most wins in program history, and then the first (outright) regular-season title since ‘78 — 46 years — first time undefeated at home since ‘66. It’s like those are big accomplishments, and he’s at the forefront of it.”

Gregory has won at pretty much every level.

He led Carmel Christian in Matthews to a back-to-back state championships and won an AAU national championship as well. So, Gregory’s career trajectory at Appalachian State has further solidified him as a proven winner, especially as the program has unrivaled success this season.

“I think he’s got a sixth sense, and it’s winning,” Kerns said. “I think that he’s always won — in high school, in AAU, and in college. And so, he’s the common denominator. So, I think he just finds a way to elevate others. … He’s a competitor, he loves to compete. And so I think those intangibles kind of come out in competition.”

A support system

Gregory’s parents, Jerome and Belinda, have been avid supporters of their son and the program throughout his five-year career. The school’s proximity to Charlotte has allowed Jerome and Belinda to become regulars at home games, where they’ve beamed with pride at Gregory’s special final year.

“With my friends and family being able to travel an hour and 45 (minutes) down the road and be able to come watch me play, it’s something that I’m forever grateful for,” Gregory said. “My parents being able to come to pretty much every home game for the past five years — some situations, it’s not the same for everybody — and just being able to have them that close to me, and also to represent Charlotte in a good way means a lot to me.”

And as Gregory gets ready to play his final Sun Belt Tournament as a Mountaineer, Kerns is able to look back on his career and appreciate the success they’ve shared together.

Kerns, like Gregory, also appreciates the support that Jerome and Belinda have brought to the program, especially during the home stretch of their son’s successful college career.

“It’s special,” Kerns said. “As a coach, one of the reasons we coach is to see players go places and do things that they don’t think they can do or dream of — and as confident as he is. But seeing him elevate this program, seeing him become the all-time winningest player, seeing him graduate, seeing his parents’ joy — I think that’s really rewarding, seeing how proud his parents are of him.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story said Appalachian State could win the Sun Belt title for the second time in three seasons. It has been corrected to potentially two in four seasons.