On Friday morning, Gene Cross was riding down the turnpike heading east to Toledo and practicing his introductory speech over the phone to longtime friend Cliff Warren, the men's basketball coach at Jacksonville University.

Warren heard the voice of Cross' mother, Haroleon Cross, in the background in the car and gave Gene advice he would later eschew: Don't look at your mother during your speech or you'll get emotional.

Gene told him, "I'm getting emotional now."

The new University of Toledo men's basketball coach calls himself "the biggest mama's boy there is," but that wasn't the sole reason for the feelings on the drive over from South Bend and during his speech. It was the thought that kept crossing his mind: "This is the job I was supposed to get."

"He and I talked all the time about what it's going to take to get a job," Warren said. "He's thankful and honored and I think he's going to cherish it for a very long time."

Cross is a guy who puts his team's grade point average on his resume. He's a crazy yet efficient driver in his hometown city of Chicago. He's a Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity brother. He's Haroleon's only child.

In all but one year of his Division I coaching career, Cross has been within easy driving distance of his family, including sons Justin, 5, and Gavin, 2, who live in the Chicago area. That's not going to change when he moves into his office in Savage Hall.

"You'll see them running around here like they own the place," Cross said of his boys.

Cross' first and most cherished mentor came from within his family. His grandfather, George Cross, was the head coach at Vashon High School in St. Louis, a traditional national powerhouse. From talking with and learning from his grandfather during his childhood, he realized a possible career choice.

"I don't think he ever had a dream of playing in the NBA," Haroleon Cross said. "I think he wanted to play basketball and when he saw there were opportunities coaching, it became a passion for him."

Cross had good enough grades at Rich Central High School in Olympia Fields, Ill.,

that he could get a full academic scholarship. He chose Illinois so he could have a respected degree and walk on to a good basketball team.

The 6-foot-3 Cross didn't play much for the Fighting Illini but that doesn't mean coach Lou Henson doesn't remember him well. Cross earned a scholarship his final year and graduated with a degree in history.

"He was a tremendous leader on that team," Henson said. "I knew he was going to be a great coach. He's a very intelligent guy and has a great personality. He has unbelievable leadership qualities."

Cross lettered his junior and senior years at Illinois and got to experience the NCAA tournament twice. The relationships he built with the coaching staff paid off quickly. Two years after he left Illinois, Henson's assistant Jimmy Collins got the Illinois-Chicago job and hired Cross as an assistant.

A year later when he was 25, Cross met another huge influence in his professional career. He was walking around at the coaches' convention in 1997 and was a little lost when he bumped into then Connecticut assistant coaches Dave Leitao and Karl Hobbs. Leitao said he'd show him around.

"I've been following him ever since," Cross said. "He took me under his wing and we were friends from that point on."

Cross stayed six years at UIC until Leitao got the DePaul head job in 2002. Cross' ingrained Chicago ties made him a natural hire for Leitao. Cross went to Virginia with Leitao for a year in 2005 but the pull of the Midwest, and the Big East Conference, drew him back.

Cross came to Notre Dame two years ago when good friend Lewis Preston left the Fighting Irish for an assistant's job at Florida. When Preston told Cross he was taking a new job, he realized while talking to him that Cross would be a great replacement. ND coach Mike Brey quickly agreed.

"He's a got a lot of 'juice'," Brey said. "There's a lot of juice and a lot of energy. There were times that I really let him handle our defense. If he needed to get after guys, he had a total green light to do whatever with them."

There was one other reason Brey was so glad to have Cross on his staff, even though he sensed it would be a short stay.

"He can recruit his behind off," Brey said. "I'm sure he has five kids lined up now in his back pocket right now [for UT]."

Brey has become quite familiar with the Mid-American Conference over the last two years because his son, Kyle, plays football at Buffalo. He's met someone there that Cross reminds him of, 2007 MAC coach of the year Turner Gill.

"I would make a lot of comparisons to Turner Gill and Gene Cross," Brey said. "You hand your son over to a man as a key part of development. If Gene Cross had my son, I'd say, do what you need to do, I trust you."

Cross was not one of the assistant coaches that get noticed only when their names pass through the transaction wire in a job change. He has been the president of the National Association of Basketball Coaches assistant coaches board for five years. He is especially proud of passing legislation for an assistant coaches' benevolence fund that goes into effect next year.

"It's been one of the best things I could have ever done," Cross said. "If you're going to be a part of something, you should want to have a hand in shaping it and understanding everything that happens in the business."

It's also helped him develop friendships with people across the country, including Warren. When Cross was at DePaul and Warren was an assistant at Georgia Tech they used to fax each other information on coaching clinics they attended. In 2005, Warren's first year at Jacksonville, Cross would give Warren scouting reports on players he saw while recruiting at Virginia who didn't have the talent level for the Atlantic Coast Conference but could be good for his team.

Cross gave Warren the "thumbs up" on Warren's then girlfriend and was a groomsmen in his wedding two summers ago. They get together several times a year, but Warren joked that might change.

"He's going to stop taking my calls now," Warren said. "He's got to get players."

Cross leaned on Leitao throughout the interview process at UT.

"Toledo is a terrific university and is in an area of the country that will allow him to do well in recruiting, coaching, and run a very successful basketball program," Leitao said.

Cross met with the current UT players just before his press conference at the Glass Bowl on Friday. The players stayed afterward to introduce themselves to Haroleon.

"That made me feel really good because I want this to be a family atmosphere," Cross said. "I feel like my mom can be theirs too."

This article was provided by: Toledoblade.Com
Written by: Maureen Fulton