One of the top recruiters in the country, Matt Abdelmassih (pronounced Matt Abdel-massey) is in his third year on the Husker bench. Abdelmassih, who had worked with Fred Hoiberg with both the Minnesota Timberwolves and at Iowa State, joined the Husker staff in April of 2019.
Abdelmassih, who was featured by ESPN.com in 2020 as one of the top 40 coaches in college basketball under the age of 40, has helped Nebraska reshape its roster in recent seasons. His 2021 class is considered the best in program history, as it is ranked 15th nationally by ESPN and is a consensus top-20 national class. The group features the first five-star recruit in school history in Bryce McGowens, as well as top-100 recruit Wilhelm Breidenbach and junior college All-American Keisei Tominaga.
Abdelmassih’s first class, which was put together in six weeks in the spring of 2019, ranked in the top 45 nationally, while his 2020 recruiting class produced four of the Huskers’ top five scorers last season.
During his four-year tenure at St. John’s from 2015-19, he helped the Red Storm improve from eight wins in his first season on the staff to 21 wins and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance in five years before coming to Lincoln.
Abdelmassih, who was tabbed the top transfer recruiter in the country by ESPN college basketball experts, recruited a majority of the 2018-19 Red Storm roster, led by two-time, first-team All-Big East selection Shamorie Ponds. In fact, all five starters on the 2018-19 team were recruited by Abdelmassih, as he brought in talented transfers such as Mustapha Heron (Auburn), Justin Simon (Arizona) and Marvin Clark Jr. (Michigan State) along with junior college transfer LJ Figueroa.
In 2016, Abdelmassih helped the Red Storm land a consensus top-25 recruiting class, according to major national recruiting services, which featured Ponds and Bashir Ahmed, who was one of the top junior college transfers in the country. Ponds, along with fellow first-year performer Marcus LoVett, was part of one of the top freshmen scoring duos in the nation in 2016-17. For their efforts, both Ponds and LoVett were unanimously selected to the Big East All-Freshman team.
In his first year at St. John’s, Abdelmassih quickly assembled nearly an entire roster of talented newcomers, including Big East All-Freshman Team honoree Kassoum Yakwe, to help rebuild the foundation.
Before returning to his alma mater, Abdelmassih was at Iowa State for five years under Hoiberg, spending his last four seasons as an assistant as the Cyclones made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances.
An assistant director of operations for Iowa State in 2010-11, Abdelmassih was promoted to assistant coach in April of 2011. In his four seasons as an assistant coach, Iowa State amassed a 99-40 (.712) record, won back-to-back Big 12 Tournament titles (2014, 2015), made four straight trips to the “Big Dance” (2012-15) and reached one NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 (2014).
Abdelmassih was instrumental in making Iowa State one of the primary destinations for some of the top transfers in the country, including DeAndre Kane and Royce White. Recruited by Abdelmassih, Kane helped lead a 2013-14 squad that advanced to just the fourth Sweet 16 in program history and finished with a 28-8 mark that included a school-record nine wins against ranked teams. Kane earned All-America, first-team All-Big 12 and Big 12 Newcomer-of-the-Year accolades.
Another Abdelmassih recruit, White was the only Division I player to lead his team in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocks and steals in 2011-12. White earned All-America honors, was a unanimous first-team All-Big 12 choice and was the 16th overall selection in the 2012 NBA Draft.
Prior to his time at Iowa State, Abdelmassih worked for the Minnesota Timberwolves for two seasons. He joined the Timberwolves staff in 2008 as a basketball operations intern and worked directly with the coaching staff. Abdelmassih then moved to the front office in 2009-10 with a promotion to basketball operations assistant, a role in which he handled salary cap issues, draft preparation, scouting and free agent analysis.
Abdelmassih was a student manager for the St. John’s men’s basketball team from 2004-07. During his tenure with the Red Storm, Abdelmassih assisted the director of basketball operations with travel, video and camp responsibilities.
A 2007 graduate of St. John’s, Abdelmassih earned a bachelor’s degree in sport management. He and his wife Kelly have two sons, Shea and Chance.
