Alabama basketball's secret weapon under Nate Oats in recent years has been assistant coach Preston Murphy, a master Transfer Portal navigator and recruiter who functions as much more than the lead assistant on Oats' staff.
Oats has called Murphy Alabama's "essentially" General Manager in the past. While Alabama football has an official General Manager in Courtney Morgan, Greg Byrne has been slow to hire one in an official capacity for basketball, like so many other programs have now done.
But make no mistake about it: that role is Murphy's without the title. He's the program ambassador. He's the one tasked with sourcing talent, with Oats obviously having the final say on whether they make official offers or not.
He's Alabama's General Manager in everything but title. Along with numerous other salaries and raises that got approved by the University on Wednesday, Murphy saw a substantial salary increase from $675,000 annually to $905,000. A year ago, he was making $450,000 before earning the raise to $675,000. His salary has more than doubled in a year's time because Oats and everyone associated with the program understand his value.
Now it's time to make the title official.
Alabama should give Preston Murphy the official GM title for the basketball program
At some point in the very near future, every serious basketball program is going to have an official GM.
Alabama is now a serious basketball program under Oats, and Byrne has committed to keeping it that way. That's why Oats signed another contract extension with the Crimson Tide and hasn't seriously entertained offers from other programs.
He wants to win here. He knows he can.
So why wait to make Murphy the GM officially?
He does the job already. Murphy enjoys the coaching aspect of basketball and not just the duties of a GM, but he could still do both if he wanted, just with a fancier title.
Or he could transition to the Alabama front office and open up another assistant coaching spot for Oats to add another talented coach to the staff.
Murphy is now making more than Morgan, the GM of the football program, made a year ago. Morgan received a raise that allowed his compensation to surpass a million dollars annually on Wednesday, and Murphy probably won't be far behind this time next year.
He's been highly coveted by other programs for the roster-building work he's done in Tuscaloosa, and Oats knows his value.
Surpassing the $900,000 annual salary mark makes Murphy one of the highest-paid assistant coaches in the country. It's well deserved.
It would also be well-deserved to make him Alabama basketball's first official General Manager.
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