Kansas State University Athletics
For Gregory, K-State Was ‘The Perfect Fit’
Jul 27, 2022 | Women's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
Gabby Gregory sits on a leather couch on the second floor of the Ice Family Basketball Training Center and begins to talk. She wonders what it will feel like to slide on a purple uniform for the first time, and what it will feel like to hear the Kansas State fans, but mostly, she wonders what it will feel like to leave the home locker room at Bramlage Coliseum and jog onto the court.
She always left the visitor's locker room whenever Oklahoma played in Manhattan.
"It'll be weird," she says. "We played at Bramlage plenty of times. I'm just really excited. It's new, it's exciting, and I'm excited for the season."
Gregory officially joined K-State on April 12, as the three-time Oklahoma letterwinner bade farewell to the Sooners and said hello to the Little Apple. The 5-foot-11 guard from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and former Big 12 Freshman of the Year, arrives as a senior with two seasons of eligibility remaining, and plans to make the most of every moment.
She gives K-State a veteran presence and a physical guard who can hit 3-pointers, mid-range jumpshots, and drive into the paint. She should be a great addition to the program.
Most days this summer, her regimen involves weight training. Lifting weights is her favorite. At night, she enjoys hitting the basketball court in the training facility, cranking up her music, and getting up shots, just her and the basketball. Throughout her travels, the basketball remains her favorite companion.
Every Thursday, the K-State women's basketball team holds a competition inside the weight room. Her team includes Ayoka Lee, Brylee Glenn, and freshman Ja'Mia Harris. They have won every time. On the court during workouts, Gregory is dribbling and passing and shooting and hustling with little regard for her body. That's just a part of her DNA. That's all that she's known.
"I actually have a few scars," she says.
The scars aren't entirely visible.
She points to a scar below her right eye. "This one, I got bit by a dog when I was four years old."
She points to her forehead. "This one was when I hit heads with a teammate at an AAU practice."
She points to her upper lip. "It was the third possession of the all-state Texas versus Oklahoma game, and a girl shot a layup and elbowed me in the mouth. I had to get stitches. We went to an Urgent Care across the street. They stitched me up and I was back for the fourth quarter. We were losing. I got to play in the fourth quarter, and we won."
In early July, Gregory began deepening her bond with some of her new K-State teammates. She joined sophomores Brylee Glenn, Jaelyn Glenn, and Serena Sundell at the 2022 Red Bull USA Basketball 3-on-3 Qualifier in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"That was so good," she says. "The chemistry is great. I love playing with these girls and everybody gets along so well. It's like we've been together for years."
Except they haven't been together for years. They've been teammates for fewer than four months.
Gregory entered the transfer portal on April 3. That's when life officially began to change. Her cell phone blew up with Division I coaches texting to elicit her services. However, only one school called her: K-State. K-State head coach Jeff Mittie got on the phone and the next day drove to Norman, Oklahoma, to visit the Gregory family. The Gregory family along with Gabby's best friend, Sydney Sharts — she also transferred from Oklahoma to join the K-State soccer team this season — took an unofficial visit to K-State and fell in love with Manhattan.
"We were blown away," Gregory says. "The town was beautiful. I went home and thought about it, and it was the perfect fit. I wanted to stay in the Big 12 because it's a great conference. The next day, I called coach Mittie and committed. I was in the transfer portal for maybe four or five days. I just couldn't see myself anywhere else."
She shared a similar sentiment about Oklahoma for many years. A lifelong Sooners fan, she went to football games since she could walk, and grew up watching All-American Courtney Paris and the dominant Sooners women's basketball teams.
"I grew up loving Oklahoma and hating Oklahoma State and Texas," she says. "That's just how you grew up."
During a legendary career at Holland Hall Prep, Gregory grabbed Oklahoma's attention. She was named the 2019 Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year and was just one of four high school players in state history to reach 2,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. Her 2,701 career points were the eighth most points in state history. As a junior, she averaged 31.2 points and 11.6 rebounds per game.
"I loved Sherri Coale," she says. "I mean, we had Sherri Coale signed pictures hanging in my house. If you live in Oklahoma, they think Sherri Coale walks on water. So, when Sherri Coale calls you and says she's offering you a scholarship, as an Oklahoma kid, you'd be silly not to go there. At the time, it was a great decision for me."
Gregory averaged 10.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 72 career games with 46 starts with the Sooners. She scored in double digits in 41 games and had a career-high 30 points at Baylor on February 22, 2020. She had at least five rebounds in 24 contests.
However, she faced challenges along the way. She discovered she had asthma the summer before her freshman year. She managed to find the correct medicine her sophomore year, but always had a stuffy nose. Dental X-rays revealed something vastly out of the ordinary.
"The dentist asked, 'Do you have a hard time breathing? You have the worst sinuses I have seen in my life,'" Gregory says.
Following sinus surgery, Gregory still had difficulty breathing despite taking the proper medicine. Month after month she visited doctor after doctor that told her she was suffering asthma attacks or panic attacks. It grew quite frustrating. Then finally a doctor said, "You have vocal cord dysfunction. I've seen this many times before."
She had surgery last August but was unable to play until January. And she was attempting her comeback under a new coaching staff.
Hall-of-Famer Coale retired in March 2021 after a legendary 25-year coaching career.
"It's hard when you play for a Hall-of-Fame coach who recruited you and who you always wanted to play for, then have a complete coaching staff change," Gregory says. "Just to sit for that long, I just thought it was in my best interest to move on."
She left everything that she had ever known behind for a new adventure.
Today, she sits on a leather couch on the second floor of the basketball training facility. She wears a purple t-shirt with a white Powercat — something she could've never envisioned a few years ago.
She chuckles at the thought.
"I like purple," she says. "People tell me all the time, 'Purple looks so good on you.' Once I committed, I think purple just became my favorite color."
Gabby Gregory sits on a leather couch on the second floor of the Ice Family Basketball Training Center and begins to talk. She wonders what it will feel like to slide on a purple uniform for the first time, and what it will feel like to hear the Kansas State fans, but mostly, she wonders what it will feel like to leave the home locker room at Bramlage Coliseum and jog onto the court.
She always left the visitor's locker room whenever Oklahoma played in Manhattan.
"It'll be weird," she says. "We played at Bramlage plenty of times. I'm just really excited. It's new, it's exciting, and I'm excited for the season."
Gregory officially joined K-State on April 12, as the three-time Oklahoma letterwinner bade farewell to the Sooners and said hello to the Little Apple. The 5-foot-11 guard from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and former Big 12 Freshman of the Year, arrives as a senior with two seasons of eligibility remaining, and plans to make the most of every moment.
She gives K-State a veteran presence and a physical guard who can hit 3-pointers, mid-range jumpshots, and drive into the paint. She should be a great addition to the program.
Most days this summer, her regimen involves weight training. Lifting weights is her favorite. At night, she enjoys hitting the basketball court in the training facility, cranking up her music, and getting up shots, just her and the basketball. Throughout her travels, the basketball remains her favorite companion.
Every Thursday, the K-State women's basketball team holds a competition inside the weight room. Her team includes Ayoka Lee, Brylee Glenn, and freshman Ja'Mia Harris. They have won every time. On the court during workouts, Gregory is dribbling and passing and shooting and hustling with little regard for her body. That's just a part of her DNA. That's all that she's known.
"I actually have a few scars," she says.
The scars aren't entirely visible.
She points to a scar below her right eye. "This one, I got bit by a dog when I was four years old."
She points to her forehead. "This one was when I hit heads with a teammate at an AAU practice."
She points to her upper lip. "It was the third possession of the all-state Texas versus Oklahoma game, and a girl shot a layup and elbowed me in the mouth. I had to get stitches. We went to an Urgent Care across the street. They stitched me up and I was back for the fourth quarter. We were losing. I got to play in the fourth quarter, and we won."
In early July, Gregory began deepening her bond with some of her new K-State teammates. She joined sophomores Brylee Glenn, Jaelyn Glenn, and Serena Sundell at the 2022 Red Bull USA Basketball 3-on-3 Qualifier in Charlotte, North Carolina.
"That was so good," she says. "The chemistry is great. I love playing with these girls and everybody gets along so well. It's like we've been together for years."
Except they haven't been together for years. They've been teammates for fewer than four months.
Gregory entered the transfer portal on April 3. That's when life officially began to change. Her cell phone blew up with Division I coaches texting to elicit her services. However, only one school called her: K-State. K-State head coach Jeff Mittie got on the phone and the next day drove to Norman, Oklahoma, to visit the Gregory family. The Gregory family along with Gabby's best friend, Sydney Sharts — she also transferred from Oklahoma to join the K-State soccer team this season — took an unofficial visit to K-State and fell in love with Manhattan.
"We were blown away," Gregory says. "The town was beautiful. I went home and thought about it, and it was the perfect fit. I wanted to stay in the Big 12 because it's a great conference. The next day, I called coach Mittie and committed. I was in the transfer portal for maybe four or five days. I just couldn't see myself anywhere else."
She shared a similar sentiment about Oklahoma for many years. A lifelong Sooners fan, she went to football games since she could walk, and grew up watching All-American Courtney Paris and the dominant Sooners women's basketball teams.
"I grew up loving Oklahoma and hating Oklahoma State and Texas," she says. "That's just how you grew up."
During a legendary career at Holland Hall Prep, Gregory grabbed Oklahoma's attention. She was named the 2019 Oklahoma Gatorade Player of the Year and was just one of four high school players in state history to reach 2,500 points and 1,000 rebounds in a career. Her 2,701 career points were the eighth most points in state history. As a junior, she averaged 31.2 points and 11.6 rebounds per game.
"I loved Sherri Coale," she says. "I mean, we had Sherri Coale signed pictures hanging in my house. If you live in Oklahoma, they think Sherri Coale walks on water. So, when Sherri Coale calls you and says she's offering you a scholarship, as an Oklahoma kid, you'd be silly not to go there. At the time, it was a great decision for me."
Gregory averaged 10.9 points, 3.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 72 career games with 46 starts with the Sooners. She scored in double digits in 41 games and had a career-high 30 points at Baylor on February 22, 2020. She had at least five rebounds in 24 contests.
However, she faced challenges along the way. She discovered she had asthma the summer before her freshman year. She managed to find the correct medicine her sophomore year, but always had a stuffy nose. Dental X-rays revealed something vastly out of the ordinary.
"The dentist asked, 'Do you have a hard time breathing? You have the worst sinuses I have seen in my life,'" Gregory says.
Following sinus surgery, Gregory still had difficulty breathing despite taking the proper medicine. Month after month she visited doctor after doctor that told her she was suffering asthma attacks or panic attacks. It grew quite frustrating. Then finally a doctor said, "You have vocal cord dysfunction. I've seen this many times before."
She had surgery last August but was unable to play until January. And she was attempting her comeback under a new coaching staff.
Hall-of-Famer Coale retired in March 2021 after a legendary 25-year coaching career.
"It's hard when you play for a Hall-of-Fame coach who recruited you and who you always wanted to play for, then have a complete coaching staff change," Gregory says. "Just to sit for that long, I just thought it was in my best interest to move on."
She left everything that she had ever known behind for a new adventure.
Today, she sits on a leather couch on the second floor of the basketball training facility. She wears a purple t-shirt with a white Powercat — something she could've never envisioned a few years ago.
She chuckles at the thought.
"I like purple," she says. "People tell me all the time, 'Purple looks so good on you.' Once I committed, I think purple just became my favorite color."
Players Mentioned
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