Editor’s note: the computer ate our, well, original column, which had a few more points and would have been posted at lunchtime Sunday, on Saturday. A few hours of searching and re-searching, and it just went ‘poof’. Second versions are never as good as the first, but the viewpoint remains the same. Apologies for the delay.

So, Greg Gary, huh?

There was certainly plenty of suspense at what Mercer’s decision makers would do, who they’d like, after the surprising firing of Bob Hoffman. Some names cropped up early, and things got very quiet.

Then a coach was named, and he was still busy in the NCAA Tournament. Now, thanks to some improbable play late during a tremendous game Saturday night, he can get going early than it seemed he could with a minute left in that game.

Goodness.

The announcement will probably come early Monday about Gary’s first trip to Macon as head coach with a press-and-fan gathering.

Upon his introduction, tremendous spin will take place, and folks will fawn over anything and everything mentioned and exaggerate some items and overlook others.

Introductory press conferences – moreso when they’re also fan-and-booster conferences - are a combination of fairly insightful and seriously irrelevant. Starry-eyed fans float out thinking one thing, but there’s little concrete in most such gatherings, and way, way, way too much is discussed about winning the press conference.

Don’t wear the wrong colors, don’t throw up, don’t stutter, don’t use really naughty words, and don’t make googoo eyes at anybody, and you’re pretty much 1-0 in introductory press conferences.

Some of us go against the current trend of refusing to spend 30 seconds Googling anything – a disinterest in knowledge is preferred anymore way too much - and actually look stuff up.

It started on that Tuesday when, finally, something about the Mercer job showed up on social media, a 4:30 p.m. Tweet from a connected national college basketball writer connecting Gary to Mercer, followed up shortly with another, and that was retweeted by another writer.

An hour or so of Googling in the home office followed, and then about 85 percent of a speculation story was done, ready to post the next morning because nothing - and not Mercer –moves that fast. Then came a visit to Mercer’s baseball game, content that there’d be 24 hours or so of nothing to worry about.

At the odd time of 8:30 p.m. – shortly before the 11 p.m. newscasts with only a fraction of the 6 p.m. audience, and too late to get too much mojo going – Mercer came out with the release, a surprise in the timing and in that things were so quiet for a few weeks – not really always a good thing – and appeared to move so fast.

So, it was time scoot home and finish up the most comprehensive story in the area on Mercer’s new hire.

Turns out we have crossed paths over the years in multiple places.

It’s likely there’ll be only one other person other than him in the room on his introductory gathering who can also claim having been to Fogelman Arena, Burton Coliseum, the Lake Charles Civic Center, and the Gold Dome at Centenary.

And at a previous gig – when papers spent money to cover stuff more than 27 minutes away – I was in Atlanta back in his playing days when the Wave made the NCAA Tournament. Nope, I don’t remember details, other than Tulane won and I sat behind the St. John’s bench and listened to the unprintable eloquence of Louie Carnesecca.

In fact – see what Googling does? – it appears I covered a game between Mercer’s new head coach and Northeast grad Corey Williams, then playing at Oklahoma State, two days later.

Yessir, we visit Memory Lane often, Greg and me. OK, not, since we’ve never met, let alone communicated. Nevertheless, those personal ships-passing-the-same-waters-at-different-times aside, I sit before you pretty stunned at what Mercer’s decision-makers came up with.

“Well, whaddaya think?”

Homer.

Three-pointer.

Touchdown.

Ace.

Goal.

Whatever.

Nope, didn’t expect to be typing that three weeks ago based on the decision made by decision makers, because there was serious potential to, well, never mind. Didn’t happen and it looks like it wasn’t even close, so never mind.

We all regularly sit in our own seat as a coach or AD or whatever, with our philosophies. There’s a difference, of course, from the completely objective-free, agenda-heavy fan and somebody in the middle who listens, pays attention, researches, and wears no colors.

So, an introduction of my beliefs as a faux athletics director in the hiring process: stability, diversity, around success, adversity. Always want somebody who has been at one place, at least, long enough to go through recruiting, player development, perhaps involved in hiring/growing other coaches, strategy, and in-game coaching, at least one four-year – preferably five -stint. And:

Somebody must have some stability at some point.

Gary has been at seven different schools since 1993, twice at the same school and under the same head coach, for whom he played.

But he has eight years at Purdue, and comes to Mercer off his longest job, and probably the best job he’s done. Had he not spent a year across South Louisiana at McNeese State, he’d have been at Tulane for eight straight years. But in reality, there was certain logic to each of his moves – even if he scratches his head at one or two.

Somebody must have experienced adversity and a lack of success.

Gary has both.

He went to play at a scarred program starting over, and then coached there.

The great run at Purdue is countered – and learned from - by five straight losing seasons at Miami and South Florida. He’s also been on the sideline for six single-digit win seasons, two as a head coach. He know what leads to getting a pink slip, and what avoids it.

Somebody should have at least a somewhat diverse resume.

Gary sure has that, with each job bearing little similarity to the previous one or next one. He’s been at two power-5 programs in two distinctly different parts of the country, and at different levels of mid-majors in different parts of the country.

He has coached in Louisiana, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Indiana, and been employed in the defunct Metro Conference, Summit, Southland, Big East twice, Conference USA, the Atlantic 10, and the Big Ten.

Covers a lot of bases.

Too much has been made by a few on Gary’s record in two years as head coach at Centenary, that 16-44 record lacking context for some because of that RTG – refusal to Google. He took over tough, tough job, started making a little subtle progress, and the school decided to drop down to Division III.

There were similarities to what he inherited at Centenary and what went on at Mercer a few decades ago. Be happy for those two years and that decision, or we wouldn’t be talking about him right now.

Somebody must be around a high level of success on any level.

That was the case most of the time at Tulane, a unique job in a unique city. He was part of 20-win seasons at Tulane, as a player and both times as an assistant, as well as at Miami and obviously Purdue. He knows what a 30-win season feels like, as well as four straight seasons of at least 25 wins.

Perry Clark, now an assistant at South Carolina, went 304-270 at Tulane, Miami, and Texas A&M/Corpus Christi. Matt Painter is 318-159 at Purdue.

And Gary and the Boilermakers were a tipped-out rebound and an open – goodness, how’d they leave him that open? - 6-9 junior hitting a shot from 13 at the buzzer away from a Final Four.

The fact is that nothing – well, almost – he’ll face at Mercer will be new or difficult or unexpected.

The Googling showed a few more things.

Mercer’s Tweet about the hiring was quickly jumped on by a chunk of Purdue fans, and while that is what it is, what stood out was the consensus reaction: a little miffed.

Miffed that he’s leaving. There wasn’t even the requisite snippy observation about something.

And come on, this is social media. Nothing is 100 percent. At least not good stuff.

This is big, because there’s still something of a PR hit from firing Hoffman, especially pulling the trigger after one poor season, the exception under Hoffman, that set up to be flipped a year later with experience and confidence.

Plus, Hoffman was a tremendous face for the program and university, with an open-door policy and who went anywhere to talk to anybody/everybody, and who was as good with the media as is possible. No doubt there were some dissenters – Hoffman wasn’t always smiling and huggable, and he wasn’t always working around the smiling and huggable.

The decision didn’t make sense then, and hiring notwithstanding, still doesn’t, based on what we all know (or think we know).

The reality – and we know how scoffed at such a thing is - is Hoffman’s name will be attached to this program and university for a long, long time, his dismissal notwithstanding. His great story went national for that magically mad March weekend five years ago, and it became for the most part Mercer’s story.

Millions of people recognize Mercer now because of what Hoffman, his staff, and the players did, and to try and downplay that (it’ll be done quietly in some corners) now is petty, immature, and fairly idiotic.

Gary would be wise – and probably is – to chat with some straight shooters regarding what was accomplished by his predecessor, in all aspects, including having left plenty in the cupboard to work with - and what is ahead.

All indications are that Gary will be pretty similar when it comes to what made Hoffman liked through the school, city, and area. And that’s big, obviously.

What very few realize is just how good a fit this looks to be with what will be on hand, with the skillset.

Gary was Purdue’s offensive coordinator, and the Boilermakers were among the 25 most efficient teams in the country – out of the 351 Division I programs – the past few seasons. They were able to employ a variety of methods to put points on the board. Saturday was only the fourth time this season somebody scored 70 on Virginia.

He’ll inherit a team well-schooled in all sorts of sets and offensive philosophies, players who are unlikely to be overly confused at what he brings. At times, maybe Hoffman threw too much at a young team last year, but we’d have seen the dividends next year. Had Mercer gone another way, there would be rebuilding and roster tweaking to do.

But there will be many more similarities than differences with the Xs and Os.

As it is, expect almost a non-existent transition on the court, and the 18 or 19 wins at minimum some of us believed would have come under Hoffman in 2019-20 will – barring something shockingly unexpected or drastic – still come in 2019-20 under Gary.

No sir, those words were certainly not expected three weeks ago to be typed here, but they are, with confidence.