In Today’s College Basketball, Great Coaches Must Also Be Great General Managers
As Florida wrapped up its national championship victory over Houston, I was ready to write about college basketball’s new guard of college coaches. Florida’s Todd Golden is under 40. Duke’s Jon Scheyer is under 40. These guys have the opportunity to coach perennial title contenders for a very long time. But in the days that followed and more and more players flooded the transfer portal (feel free to read that line with the intro music from Stranger Things in your head), it hit me that in the current climate of college athletics, a school having a good coach isn’t enough. The coach, or someone in the athletic department, better be a good general manager as well.
- Florida’s national title win highlights a new generation of young college basketball coaches.
- Success now requires coaches or staff to act as effective general managers, not just tacticians.
- Programs like BYU are investing millions in NIL deals to compete nationally.
- Being a good GM means more than spending—it's about building balanced, cohesive rosters.
- Duke’s Jon Scheyer built around Cooper Flagg with smart transfers and complementary pieces.
- The programs that thrive will master roster construction, booster coordination, and team chemistry.
What Makes A Good General Manager?
There are plenty of programs that have wide open checkbooks when it comes to being able to sign players to NIL deals. BYU signed AJ Dybantsa, the number one recruit in the high school class of 2025 to a reported $7 million deal and has thrown around their weight in the transfer portal as well, with incoming Baylor transfer Rob Wright receiving an NIL package reported between $3 million and $3.5 million. The hope from those around the program in Provo is that the big booster money will elevate the program to compete at the game’s highest level and give the school a shot at a national championship. BYU, like a number of schools, doesn’t have someone with the title of “general manager” on its staff. Doug Stewart is head coach Kevin Young’s Chief of Staff and Young’s younger brother Justin is the Director of Recruiting. Both likely serve as liaisons between the coaching staff, the boosters and the players identified as targets for a future roster.
But is the ability to spend someone else’s money the qualification of being a good GM? I’d argue not. After all, the BYU collective providing the $10 million to just two players could watch their investment fall flat if one (particularly Dybansta) of those players turns in a less than stellar season or the team fails to make noise in the NCAA Tournament. No, a good GM doesn’t just spend money. A GOOD GM finds the best way to construct a roster that fits together while keeping the checkbook balanced and the coaching staff happy.
Which Program Has the Best General Manager?
It’s too early to tell which college program has the best staff pulling the roster construction and financial strings, but I want to go back to one of the names I started with in Jon Scheyer. The second-year head coach made the decision to build around one player – star freshman Cooper Flagg. The team was constructed to allow him to play his game, while putting the best surrounding and supporting cast around him. And, let’s be real, when Duke is on the front of the jersey, it’s easy to sell five-star high school talent on coming in. That’s what he did with sharpshooter Kon Knueppel and big man Khaman Maluach. But two more unsung transfer signees out of the transfer portal in Sion James (Tulane) and Maliq Brown (Syracuse) helped give the team a defensive identity that was reminiscent of some early 2000s Blue Devils squads. The build also included letting a former captain in Jeremy Roach hit the portal (Baylor), while handing the keys to the team to Tyrese Proctor. It didn’t end in a championship, but the moves led to one of the better constructed rosters, that blended together extremely well, in the nation this past season. Assuming the same people are in charge, the same could happen again with freshman forward Cameron Boozer leading the way.
Conclusion
What is here today isn’t promised tomorrow, and that is certainly the case with college basketball moving forward. A good GM, who can find a way to spend while blending a team together is what will set a coach up for success before the playbook is even open. It remains to be seen if BYU’s spending method will work with the current coaching staff in place.
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Jonathan Howard, Sports Analyst
Jonathan Howard is a veteran sports writer from Richmond, Virginia. His work has been featured in newspapers such as the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Washington Post and The Virginian-Pilot. He enjoys cheering for his alma mater - VCU - and playing golf when time allows.