The St. John’s basketball program will be in the market for a new general manager this season after the university formally dismissed Matt Abdelmassih this week from his position.
Abdelmassih served in the role since the Red Storm created the job in the new era of the transfer portal and NIL under Rick Pitino’s staff.
“It’s out of my hands,” Rick Pitino said after St. John’s topped Marquette 92-68 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night. “All I was told four days ago is look for another general manager.”
In his role as the GM of the Johnnies, Abdelmassih helped target players for the coaching staff to recruit and negotiate NIL deals with the representation of the players. Ultimately, Pitino and his coaching staff had the final say on whether the program brought in a player or not.
“[School administrators] said to me, ‘Don’t ask any questions,’” Pitino continued. “It’s really not a big deal.”
This was Matt Abdelmassih’s third stint with the St. John’s basketball program, serving as a student manager under Norm Roberts and an assistant coach under Chris Mullin. He left the program following Mullin’s dismissal and joined Fred Hoiberg’s staff at Nebraska, who he previously worked under at Iowa State.
“What’s a big deal is making sure we don’t lose anything, but that’s a university decision, I’ll abide by it. They didn’t ask me my opinion and I didn’t give it,” Pitino added. “And in their defense, they didn’t want to bother me. They didn’t want to distract me right now, and I appreciate that.”
Abdelmassih played a large part in assembling St. John’s Big East Championship roster last year as well as this year’s team that was ranked as the No. 1 transfer portal class in the country by various recruiting outlets.
“I’m disappointed that somebody will lose a job with four young kids, yes, but it’s not a big deal in terms of our basketball program and we move on. We go find someone else.”
Abdelmassih had been put on administrative leave from the program and school since mid-December, according to school officials.
“It’s never good to see people go, but in the eyes of the university it was very warranted, so we move on,” Pitino continued.
St. John’s and Rick Pitino have already begun the process of looking for a new general manager and hosted Tom Ostrom for its game against Marquette. Ostrom has spent over 25 years as coach, including seven seasons on staff at Florida under Billy Donovan, one of the first true stars of Pitino.
The Red Storm head coach also mentioned that he is looking at two other candidates for the role.