Kuyper filling new general manager role

MBB: This is a new position for Murray State Men's Basketball

Ernie Kuyper poses with Ryan Miller during Miller’s introduction as Murray State’s new head coach. (Photo: David Eaton/Murray State Athletics)

As the college basketball world continues to evolve at warp speed, coaching staff responsibilities and job titles are also changing. Yes, there are still assistant coaches and video coordinators and graduate assistants and directors of basketball operations.

One title that is popping up at more and more schools around the country is that of general manager — and that includes at Murray State. So what exactly will a general manager do in Murray?

“That's going to be our liaison between our coaching staff and (Murray State Director of Athletics) Nico Yantko and his staff, and how we can contribute, and how can we best support our players through NIL,” Murray State Head Coach Ryan Miller said.

While not officially announced yet, Miller has tasked his cousin, Ernie Kuyper, to fill that general manager role. Kuyper has been a staple of AAU basketball in Memphis for years, while also being the president of Hoop City Basketball Club for the last two decades.

“It’s not a new position, per se in body count, but it is an evolution of our roles that we currently had,” Yantko said. “To get that position in place, someone that's focusing on not only evaluation of your roster, roster management and personnel decisions…”

That’s where I interrupted Yantko for clarification. Did he say ‘evaluation’ or ‘valuation’?

“Both,” Yantko responded. “I think you have to explore both of those avenues throughout this market now. The game has changed. The (transfer) portal is real. There's no more hiding behind ‘What is it?’ It is what it is. We're in a marketplace now (where) that market is constantly evolving. (When) we tap into the revenue share era, we need to have people who can assign values and evaluate talent, but also understand the connectivity on how you get to understanding these individuals personally and professionally. I think there's a lot of pieces that this general manager role is going to hold firm on, but also work with us from an administrative point, also work with Ryan and the roster themselves, because the game has evolved so much. It's not recruiting like it was ten, 15 years ago. There's so many elements and variables that play into this, from it being agent relationships, right down to the AAU systems and all those components. When you look at what this role will be, it's going to be a lot of catch-all on the player-personnel side, and it's going to mimic that of a professional model. However, it’s still in collegiate athletics. We still recruit our players, right? We still recruit them. So that is one unique twist to the puzzle here that we're still all navigating, not only at Murray State, but nationally. I think we're playing offense here and assigning this role to a general manager.”

Kuyper, and many other coaching staff members, are expected to officially be announced in the coming weeks. Assistant Coach Brendan Mullins and Director of Operations Jack Seltsam are the only staff members from last year that are still listed under ‘Coaching Staff’ on the Murray State roster page at GoRacers.com.