最新杏吧原创

COLUMBIA, Mo. 鈥� How else would the first-ever general manager of Missouri men鈥檚 basketball divvy up his early days in the role than with percentages?

In a sport that to a large degree centers around the numbers that go in front of a percent sign, new Mizzou hoops GM Tim Fuller has broken his first 100 days down by the percentage of them he鈥檒l spend on different tasks.

The first 10% were about the players currently on the MU roster. Fuller has familiarity with the program, having worked as an assistant coach for the Tigers from 2011-15, but some present-day Missouri players were in elementary school then.

So Fuller has spoken to the team and met them, trying to understand them for the players 鈥渢o have a chance to get to know me,鈥� he said Saturday, meeting with reporters after a football and basketball alumni game on the Mizzou Arena hardwood.

The next 30 days 鈥� or 30%, as Fuller framed it 鈥� are about agents, a key part of his freshly crafted job description. In the name, image, likeness age of college sports, agents are involved in recruitment and negotiations. Missouri coach Dennis Gates felt it was time he had someone on his staff who specialized in working with them.

When Gates decided he wanted to fall in line with a national trend and hire the program鈥檚 first general manager, the agent relations angle was key.

鈥淥ne of the interesting elements of this is the interpretation or definition of GM at different places is different,鈥� MU athletics director Laird Veatch said last week. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why, with Coach Gates, that was important to him: He wanted to have that kind of role on staff and have somebody that can really help him interact directly with agents and manage some of those elements.鈥�

While agents are new to college hoops, they鈥檙e not to Fuller. He worked with them as a marketing executive at Nike, then in closer proximity to the modern NIL landscape with the Overtime Elite preps setup and then as an assistant to Kim English at Providence.

Fuller is first connecting with agents who are already on friendly terms with the Mizzou staff. Then he鈥檒l broaden their horizons.

Both Fuller and Gates will travel to Las Vegas later this summer for the NBA Summer League, where two former Tigers in Tamar Bates and Caleb Grill will likely be trying to play their way into NBA roster spots. It鈥檒l be a business trip for Gates and his new GM, too.

Fuller is already lining up meetings with agents in Vegas to introduce them to Gates and Missouri, making the connection well before the Tigers might have interest in an agent鈥檚 transferring client.

鈥淛ust so we can start to understand what their expectations are moving forward in this new day of college basketball and also share our expectations in terms of the quality and types of athletes and people that we want to be part of the program,鈥� Fuller said.

Fuller and Mizzou are investing in relationships with three groups of people, he said. One is the agents who will become particularly influential when the transfer portal opens up each spring. Another is the high school players who can make up recruiting classes down the road.

Of growing interest to the Tigers, among other programs, are international prospects who see an increasingly professionalized college basketball as an attractive alternative to working up through European professional ranks. Missouri was linked to a couple of international prospects during this year鈥檚 transfer portal window, though none of those contacts came to fruition. Now, though, MU could be laying the foundation for a future foreign player or two.

Staff will head to some FIBA events soon to court international players, Fuller said.

For now, this is Fuller鈥檚 focus. Well after his first 100 days, he鈥檒l start getting ready for his first transfer portal window as the Tigers鈥� GM 鈥� when he can relieve some of the acquisition burden on a staff that hopes to have postseason competition to prioritize at that point of the season.

Fuller鈥檚 responsibilities and Gates鈥� vision for the general manager position might change. Both expect there to be an evolution of what the job entails. GM roles are far from standard in college sports.

At some places, like Stanford and Cal football, the head coaches report to the general manager. That鈥檚 not the case with Mizzou men鈥檚 basketball: Fuller is on par with the coaching staff, reporting to Gates. With other programs, like MU football, a GM can seem redundant.

Since football coach Eli Drinkwitz gave up play-calling duties in 2023, he has more time for the personnel aspects of running a program that might otherwise fall to a GM. Plus Brad Larrondo, the CEO of Mizzou鈥檚 NIL marketing agency Every True Tiger, moved to that role from the football program.

All of that would make a football general manager rather redundant 鈥� and therefore an unlikely job for Drinkwitz to create at the moment.

That鈥檚 why Veatch doesn鈥檛 necessarily expect one GM hire at Missouri to turn into a whole flock of them.

鈥淚t is going to be different depending on the coach and the sport,鈥� Veatch said. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 important, that we meet coaches where their needs are. Some coaches are positioned differently to manage this than others, so we need to support them in whatever they need.鈥�