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From Sidelines to Spotlight: The NCAA Manager Basketball League
By Jeremy Strause
February 17th, 2024
In many ways, college basketball is the epitome of American sports, especially in March. March Madness has to be the best tournament for the fans and the players. People who don’t even watch sports will fill out a bracket and you never really know who is going to win until the final buzzer goes off. When you're a kid, you have dreams of dressing up and playing on the biggest stages in the United States. When I was younger, I would go in my backyard and imagine I was dressed in the Cardinal Red for Stanford, get the ball with time winding down and hit the game winner over Berkeley in the National Title Game.
However, for most kids like me, reality sets in at some point, and you realize that this dream can’t become actuality. For the managers of Division I programs, they get to keep the dream alive. The night before tip-off of a big matchup, both teams’ managers get together to compete. They get to play on the nicest courts in the world, in front of tens of thousands of empty seats at midnight, grinding it out and having fun. This is the NCAA Mangers Games.
Courtesy of Tristan Beckmann, Bellarmine
The NCAA Managers Games is a league made up of 185 Division I programs. Despite the league’s name, it’s more than just the managers who show up and play. The staff ranges from writers to alumni.
Back in 2014, Michigan State students Ian May and Andrew Novak worked with Athletic Director and former manager Kevin Pauga to create a formal league for Managers Games. Before 2014, the games had gone on for a while as competitive pickup games, but these students decided to create a formal system with rankings. The idea was an instant success: in its first two seasons, the league saw 165 schools play in 652 games, representing 27 conferences.
In 2016, the league took another huge step forward. The Managers Games had its first ever playoff. The top eight teams squared off in the Final Four’s host city to crown the Manager National Champions. In the first two seasons, the league saw over 250,000 players vote on who got invited to the Manager Games Playoffs. In the first year, we saw the Kansas Jayhawks take down Michigan State 44-42 in a thrilling affair, crowning the Jayhawks as the first ever Managers Games Champion. In 2017, Missouri dismantled Western Kentucky 51-46 and was awarded the 2017 National Crown.
The rulebook for the league is very similar to a High School or AAU. The games are 40 minutes long (20 minute halves) with a running clock. The games don’t have refs so it is call your own foul. In the last two minutes of the game, the clock stops and any common foul is a 1-1 free throw. In the event of a tie, the overtime period is five minutes. Other than these boundaries, the rules are just basketball common sense.
The behind the scenes that go into the game is very impressive. These games have to be played extremely late at night due to the amount of work the managers have to do beforehand. According to the Head Manager of Stanford, Ells Boone, he has to coordinate with the opposing team’s manager before the game. When coordinating, Boone focuses on “the time of the game, where the game will be played and if the opponent has enough players for the game.”
On gameday, the managers are working extremely hard for the actual team. Each day, the managers are working before, during and after practice. Before each practice, the managers have to prepare water, equipment and help players get warm. During practice, they are rebounding shots and doing anything to get involved and help practice run as smoothly as possible. Then after practice, some players will stay and get some reps in. Overall, these days are around three to five hours long. Then, the managers have to help prepare dinner. Preparation includes ordering food and presenting the room in an orderly fashion. After the team dinner, Ells says “the managers are relieved of their duties.” This is usually when the managers attend the game.
The teams usually start warming up 15-20 minutes before the game. Boone’s pregame routine consists of “stretching to prevent injury and just getting the shot warm.” You find out who you’re playing once the game tips off. Boone says “My basketball career ended in the 9th grade. I have played graduate assistants that were Division One All Conference players.”
Boone commented that the “games get really competitive. If there is a skill gap, the better team will run up the score. There are games where we lose by a couple and games where we lose by 20.”
The NCAA Managers Games has transformed from casual pickup games to a competitive league, thanks to the efforts of individuals like Ian May, Andrew Novak, Kevin Pauga and Ells Boone. With playoffs and standardized tournaments, the league has seen exciting championship moments. Despite the absence of referees, the games remain fiercely competitive, driven by participants' passion. Behind the scenes, managers work tirelessly to ensure smooth operations. These games showcase the enduring love for basketball and the power of initiative in sports.