Matt Abdelmassih

Matt Abdelmassih is the current General Manager of the St. John's Men's Basketball Team. In this role, Abdelmassih is responsible for raising funds for the University's NIL collectives and managing the relationship and communication between the team's players and coaching staff.

Career

St. John's

As a student at St. John's University, Abdelmassih worked as a student manager for the men's basketball team from 2004 through 2007 while earning a bachelor's degree in sport management. Upon graduation, Abdelmassih took a job with the Minnesota Timberwolves as an operations intern assisting the coaching staff. He was quickly promoted within the organization to basketball operations assistant before leaving for a role with the Iowa State men's basketball team and coach Fred Hoiberg, who had worked with the Timberwolves at the same time as Abdelmassih.

Iowa State

When Fred Hoiberg became coach of the Iowa State men's basketball team in 2010, he made Abdelmassih the "first hire" to his staff. Abdelmassih had an immediate impact, securing the commitment of Royce White, who earned Minnesota Mr. Basketball honors in 2009. White played only one year at the collegiate level before being selected 16th in the 2012 NBA Draft. During Abdelmassih's tenure at Iowa State, the team made four straight NCAA tournament appearances and win two Big 12 Tournament titles. Before the 2015 season, Abdelmassih left Iowa State to return to St. John's, joining newly appointed men's basketball coach Chris Mullin as the Hall of Famer's first major hire.

St. John's

Before the 2016 season, Abdelmassih recruited highly regarded transfer Bashir Ahmed and talented freshmen Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett, both of whom were eventually named unanimous selections to the Big East All-Freshmen Team at the conclusion of the season. Following his success in 2016, an ESPN survey of college coaches named Abdelmassih the most effective recruiter of transfers in the country.

Nebraska

Abdelmassih joined the Nebraska Cornhuskers Basketball team in April 2019. Despite being hired late in the recruiting cycle, he assembled a transfer class that was rated in the top 45 nationally. In 2020, while on the Nebraska staff, Abdelmassih was named to ESPN's top 40 coaches under 40 years old. His most notable success at Nebraska was the recruitment of the 2021 team, which was a consensus top-20 class and featured the school's first ever five-start recruit, Bryce McGowens.

St. John's

Abdelmassih returned to St. John's in 2023 to join newly hired coach Rick Pitino as the team's general manager. He is responsible for working with the team's three NIL collectives to secure contributions in support of the basketball program's goals. Additionally, Abdelmassih collaborates with Pitino and his staff to attract players to the team and help build the roster.

In Abdelmassih's second season with the program, the team won the Big-East Regular season championship as well as the Big-East Tournament, the latter of which had not been accomplished since 2020.