Alabama Assistant Acting as GM In Transfer Portal

Tuscaloosa, Ala. - The NCAA transfer portal officially opened on Monday, March 24, for undergraduate players hoping to find a new home to play college basketball in the 2025-2026 season, with more than 700 players entering the portal in the first 24 hours.

Get our free mobile app

For Alabama, the Crimson Tide is one of 16 teams still alive in the NCAA Tournament. The Crimson Tide flew from Cleveland to Newark to prepare for a Thursday night matchup with the BYU Cougars, then a possible Saturday matchup in the Elite Eight with either Duke or Arizona.

With Alabama still actively preparing and participating in games, it makes it difficult for the Tide's staff to evaluate players in the transfer portal. While head coach Nate Oats and the two other staffers, Ryan Pannone and Brian Adams, prepare the Tide for the Cougars, one coach has assumed the responsibilities of essentially a general manager by evaluating players in the transfer portal - Preston Murphy.

"I don't like it now, because if you're still playing, you should be focused on what you're doing, not focused on who's in the portal and recruiting for next year," Oats told Sirius XM SEC Radio on Monday. "Which is where I think the GM role is starting to come into play, and if you've got a GM who is not a coach."

Oats has delegated the responsibilities to Preston Murphy, who Oats canned a "de facto" general manager last September.

"Preston Murphy is not technically our GM, but he essentially is. He's in charge of recruiting and everything. He's gonna be the one more focused on that. Then he's also helping with the scouting reports, doing personnel. But we've got four days - he'll be able to lock into doing both. He's pretty good at his job."

Oats is hesitant to give Murphy the official general manager title because "he's a really good coach." Murphy helped orchestrate the current Crimson Tide roster while Alabama was pursuing its first Final Four appearance last season. Murphy, alongside analytics consultant Michael Schwimer, will do so again while the Tide continues its NCAA tournament run.

However, just because Alabama is in the midst of a tournament run, Oats said, "I'm not giving up putting my roster together as the head coach."

According to Mike Rodak of 247 Sports, Alabama has already been in contact with portal prospects so far, reaching out to North Dakota State guard Jacari White and North Dakota guard Treysen Eaglestaff.

Oats is a proponent of a later transfer portal window.

"I was a proponent of not opening it up until the Final Four," Oats said Monday. "I do think what you see, though, is the portal hasn't been open for the last week but kids are already saying I'm going in the portal. They're essentially in it before it's open, even though you can't talk to the kid, people are reaching out to you, 'Would you have interest?' Just continuing to put it off just kind of prolongs that even longer. So whatever they make the rule, we're just gonna go with it. It's the way college basketball is today. We'll make sure we have a good roster ready for next year."

During "Hey Coach" on Monday night, Oats said this is where Preston Murphy comes into play as the "de facto" general manager.

""Transfer portal opened today," Oats said Monday evening. "I'm trying to focus on BYU. Preston is spending some time recruiting because I don't think the [SEC] is getting any worse."

Alabama has also reached out to Iowa guard transfer Josh Dix.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.