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Founder of Fitz Gate Portfolio Company Overtime among the 20 most influential in college basketballs

By February 22, 2023April 6th, 2024No Comments

College basketball 20 for the next 20: Matt Painter, Rich Paul, Jon Scheyer, and more
Dana O’Neil
Feb 15, 2023

Twenty years ago, a high school phenom by the name of LeBron James went directly from his Akron high school to the NBA. Because he could. The NBA had yet to install the age limit that would change the course of, and certainly the faces of, college basketball.

Twenty years ago, 65 teams made the NCAA Tournament, not 68.

Twenty years ago, Nate Oats was teaching math at Romulus High School and Todd Golden was in high school.
Things just don’t merely change in two decades; they happen. Predicting the change, well that’s the hard part. No one could foresee Shabazz Napier’s post-championship lament for snacks would help break down the very concept of amateurism and establish comfort in the idea that yes, athletes deserve some sort of compensation.

So, imagining the next 20 years of men’s college basketball takes some actual imagination.

But identifying who might make the changes happen, that’s a little easier. Not entirely, of course. Oats, for example, was tossing out calculus equations when Bobby Hurley was coming to his gym to recruit E.C. Matthews, which would lead to Oats becoming Hurley’s assistant at Buffalo, and then succeeding Hurley as head coach after he left for Arizona State, which would turn Oats into a hot mid-major coaching commodity and land him in … Tuscaloosa, Alabama?

Future math teachers turned millionaire power conference coaches notwithstanding, typically the movers and shakers have their telltales. Power and position, an eye for innovation and an ear for listening — those are good indicators of future power brokers.
This, then, is an attempt to ID those folks. It is not exhaustive. The 20 for 20 construct means plenty of good, smart people got left on the editing floor. It’s intentionally diverse in position, race and gender, with the hope that the college basketball’s future will be influenced by people diverse in position, race and gender. It’s also not an age-based list. No under 50, 40 or 30 requirements. DJ Wagner is 17. Charlie Baker is 66.
The idea is to peer into a crystal ball and imagine one of two things: who might either be around to influence the next 20 years; or who is in position to do something in the short term that will have at least two decades’ worth of lasting impact.

1. Val Ackerman, Big East commissioner
As the logical (and only, at the power-conference level) landing place for basketball-first schools, the Big East actually holds some cards in the conference realignment poker game. Like its leader, the league has been patient, smart and deliberate in its expansion plans, but Ackerman also has said the league can’t simply sit still. “I don’t think the Big East will stay at 11 forever,’’ she told The Athletic in October. It may not return to its 1980s glory days, but the conference — and thereby its leader — will be a player in the basketball market for the next two decades.

2. Charlie Baker, NCAA president
Considering the fecklessness of the last person to hold his position, Baker doesn’t have to do a whole lot to make an impact. As a former governor, he comes to the job from a different vantage point, at a time when the NCAA is trying to reinvent itself, which could bode well for overall change. Baker was put in this position largely because of his political clout, in the hopes that he can help navigate the murky NIL waters, which has an indirect impact on college hoops. But the direct impact is much simpler: Thanks to the NCAA Tournament, men’s college basketball remains the NCAA’s biggest moneymaker. Between calls for tourney expansion, individual sport governance and the expiration of the CBS deal in 2032, Baker will have to tend to the NCAA’s prize pony.

3. Ed Cooley, Providence head coach
If college basketball handed out an annual no B.S. award, Cooley might win it every time. He has always been an unabashed — and much-needed — truth teller, but now that he’s got the results, there’s heft to what he has to say. Granted, in 20 years Cooley will be 73, and who knows how long his career will last, but college basketball always looks to a coach to be its voice and its conscience. Cooley can and should be both.

4. Derek Crocker, Fox Sports VP for collegiate sports
As the man who helps craft the programming schedule, Crocker is the influencer you didn’t know was influencing you. He helps decide who gets the “big Fox game” treatment, and what games get TV time at all. Exceedingly thorough, Crocker doesn’t just go for the name brands, but does his homework to understand what teams actually merit coverage and to suss out good storylines. With the network’s deal with the Big Ten and long-standing relationship with the Big East, expect Crocker’s handprint to be all over college hoops for the foreseeable future.

5. Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president, basketball
As the NCAA prepares to shuffle its governance deck, allowing each sport to monitor itself to some extent, the big question is who will be in charge of the national body’s revenue producer? Figure Gavitt will be involved. He’s already kinda got the job, anyway, and moves comfortably between the folks in the NCAA offices and the coaches who don’t like them. Moreover Gavitt is that rare creature in college athletics: universally liked, trusted and respected.

6. Robbie Hummel, TV analyst
Hummel wisely took a page from the Bill Raftery handbook, and is not beholden to one network. He calls games for both ESPN and the Big Ten Network. That gives him more inventory to cover, and more opportunities to grow. The former Purdue star already has proven to be insightful and intuitive, appreciated for both his understanding of the game and his candor. Analysts are pretty much the sport’s megaphone, and Hummel could be the insider voice of the future.

7. Nate Oats, Alabama head coach
Oats’ rejuvenation of the Crimson Tide is nothing shy of a marvel. Considering the endless resources Alabama athletics has at its disposal — including a new state-of-the-art NIL hub and plans for a new arena — it’s still perhaps only the tip of the iceberg for the force that Alabama basketball can become. Athletic director Greg Byrne wisely signed his coach to a six-year extension, which doesn’t necessarily mean Oats’ name won’t percolate in the next few cycles of the coaching carousel, but it makes it more expensive to consider him.

8. Matt Painter, Purdue head coach
Aside from his own staying power, as a perennial March presence, Painter is quietly and unassumingly becoming a powerful voice in college basketball leadership. He sits on a number of NCAA committees and is on the NABC board of directors. More important than the positions themselves, he wants to roll up his sleeves and take care of the game. Coaches hope that, in the new NCAA structure, there will actually be room at the table for them to share their insights and opinions. If so, seat Painter at the head.

9. Dan Porter, Overtime Elite CEO
“I’m telling you, that’s the future.’’ That’s how one coach described Overtime Elite after visiting the developmental program’s Atlanta-based headquarters. Porter is a Princeton grad who didn’t have much interest in sports, but after Overtime, his direct-to-social sports network, took off, he saw an avenue to expand into actual competition. Overtime Elite has a burgeoning list of high schoolers looking for year-round training and competition, and with its academic arm, keeps the door open for its athletes to go to college, and not just the pros.

10. Kevin Pauga, Michigan State associate athletic director
Pauga is a numbers savant. He created his own metrics (the KPI Report) that is used for NCAA Tournament selection. But more to the point of this exercise, he is college hoops’ scheduling guru. Pauga creates the slates for more than a dozen conferences already. His office still technically sits in East Lansing, where he coordinates travel, postseason planning and other duties as assigned (the aircraft carrier game logistics, for example), but plenty of folks figure he’s an upwardly mobile player destined for a conference headquarters soon.

11. Rich Paul, Klutch Sports
There is a beautiful irony at play here. Four years ago, the NCAA sent out a memo to agents outlining its certification rules, including a bachelor’s degree. Pushback came swiftly, and most notably from Paul, who wrote an op-ed piece for The Athletic. The NCAA quickly amended its policy, abandoning what quickly became known as the “Rich Paul rule.’’ Now Rich Paul simply could rule, if he so chooses. LeBron’s longtime agent already represents Bronny and high-school-aged Bryce, as well as Arkansas guard Nick Smith Jr. Expect more top players to follow.

12. Chris Rastatter, NCAA supervisor of officials
Twenty years might be too long on this exceptionally difficult job, but if Rastatter has the gumption or interest to make any sort of seismic shifts, his impact will be felt long beyond 20 years. College basketball has never been able to centralize its officials into one hub, which creates not just inconsistencies in the ways games are called league to league; it makes for travel nightmares. By the start of February, Keith Kimble had worked 69 games — including 10 in an 11-day stretch (Blacksburg, Va., to Ames, Iowa, to Gainesville, Fla., to Ann Arbor, Mich., to Waco, Texas, to Iowa City, Iowa, to Grambling, La., to Fort Worth, Texas, to Norman, Okla., to Evanston, Ill.). Refs get paid good money by making their own schedule, but the wear and tear has left them open to criticism. Someone needs to get their arms around it. Maybe Rastatter can be that someone.

13. Craig Robinson, NABC executive director
The coaches association hasn’t had much teeth to it in the past. Hosts a convention at the Final Four, puts out a few press releases, moves along. Robinson is trying to change that. Along with working to ensure that more of his coaches are involved in actual decision-making for their sport, Robinson is intent on creating better messaging about his coaches. The NABC partnered with TeamWorks Media to former Coaches+, a media company with designs to develop content about coaches.

14. Kellen Sampson, Houston assistant coach
Sampson is too good to be the Prince Charles to his father’s Queen Elizabeth II and wait around in Houston until the succession plan comes through. He will be a head coach somewhere and sometime soon. With his father’s pedigree, coupled with his own recruiting success to help build Houston into a national power, expect him to be a force on his own.

15. Greg Sankey, SEC commissioner
Sankey’s orbit tends toward football, but don’t underestimate his influence on college basketball. The man in charge of the transformation committee already is stumping for an expanded NCAA Tournament — it’s more money and more opportunity for his soon-to-be more bloated league. Considering the NCAA pretty much swallowed the committee’s suggestions whole, who’s to say it won’t listen to the man about the tourney? If he gets his way, Sankey will not just affect the look of the tourney, he could dramatically alter the financial impact of the tournament. More bids for more power teams means more shares paid into their accounts, and potentially less into the mid- and low-majors that rely on that money to exist.

16. Casey Schwab, Altius Partners CEO
Casual fans probably haven’t heard of Schwab or his company, but college athletic departments have. More than 30 of them — including LSU, Georgia, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee — have partnered with the company Schwab started to navigate the NIL waters, using the company’s GM program for on-campus management. Former NCAA enforcement head Oliver Luck is the company chairman, but Schwab, who started his career in the NFL Players Association, is the brains. As NIL becomes a regular part of college athletics, expect more and more people to know Schwab’s name.

17. Jon Scheyer, Duke head coach
Here’s the thing: Win or lose, Scheyer is going to impact college basketball going forward. He’s already proven that the Duke brand is bigger than one man, attracting nine top 50 high school recruits in his first two classes. If he succeeds and the Blue Devils keep rolling, Scheyer’s gravitas grows right along with it. If he fails and the job opens, that also sends a ripple effect through the sport.

18. Dawn Staley, South Carolina women’s basketball coach
She doesn’t need to jump. Maybe even putting her on this list could be construed as insulting, as if the job she currently has is somehow less. Because it is not. But Staley is, at her core, a trailblazer and a fierce competitor. She is poised to create the next dynasty in women’s basketball. But maybe at some point in the next 20 years she gets bored at South Carolina, having achieved all she can achieve. She does not need to coach a men’s team to vindicate her legacy, but someday someone will do it, and heaven knows she can.

19. Brian Thornton, WAC commissioner
Outside-the-box thinkers are becoming a rare breed in college athletics; everyone is far too busy protecting their box to tweak it. Thornton is the exception, and his league is at the forefront of some innovative thinking that could reframe the importance of nonconference scheduling. His league will use a comprehensive resume analytic to reseed teams for the conference tourney, awarding top seeds based on the totality of team’s record, not just in-league play. Along with smoothing out the mess of unbalanced schedules, the hope is to not just encourage teams to play harder nonconference schedules, but also boost the WAC’s NET ranking and land a better NCAA Tournament seed. Thornton is also part of a group pushing for a February scheduling pause to allow teams to play two algorithm-generated nonconference games, to give bubble teams and projected NCAA Tournament teams a late push to improve their resumes. According to CBSSports.com, 22 of 32 conferences are already on board.

20. DJ Wagner, Kentucky recruit
How, you might wonder, could a player who is going to stay in college for one season impact the next 20 years? Easy. Wagner will be the first big college basketball profit maker in the age of NIL (presuming Bronny James doesn’t go to college). The sport has had its share of early success stories — Oscar Tshiebwe has done quite nicely for himself — but NIL started when college hoops lacked a high-profile recruit to capture the market. Enter Wagner, the nation’s top-ranked player, son of DaJuan, grandson of Milt, going to the fishbowl of Lexington with a Nike deal already in place. He won’t necessarily set the market value for the next 20 years, but he will show the way.

(Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos of, from left, Rich Paul, DJ Wagner and Jon Scheyer: Elsa, Tim Nwachukwu, Grant Halverson / Getty Images)

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