HOUSTON — Brad Underwood spent more time than he would have liked pacing the back hallways of TD Garden in Boston and making phone calls two years ago.
Not that he had a choice.
The Illinois men’s basketball team had games to prepare for — a Sweet 16 showdown with Iowa State and then an Elite Eight matchup with Connecticut — but also a team to build for the 2024-25 season. The transfer portal was already open. Not spending time making calls would have been roster building malpractice.
Underwood didn’t have to pull double duty this week in Houston. While some players across college basketball have announced their intention to enter the portal, that window will officially stay sealed shut until the day after the national championship game as a different kind of madness ignites.
“This is about the 16 teams that have had great seasons and accomplished a lot,” Underwood said. “The timing is much better now. It’s the highlight of our sport is this time of year. To not have to be worried about next year when we can focus on this year is where all the energy and time should be.”
That doesn’t mean Illinois will enter the transfer portal window unprepared.
It’s why Underwood brought Neel Ganta back to Champaign in December 2024 as director of player personnel — essentially the Illini’s general manager.
A former graduate manager for Underwood during the 2020-21 season, Ganta spent three-plus years in the Denver Nuggets organization. He first worked as director of player programs for the Grand Rapids Gold in the G League before moving to Denver to work as basketball strategy and analytics coordinator and a pro scout.
Experience that has helped shape Ganta’s role in his return to Champaign.
“I probably wouldn’t have left an NBA front office-job with the Denver Nuggets, having the best player in the world, for any other college except Illinois because of the family atmosphere and the trust Brad has in me,” Ganta told The News-Gazette.
The Manhattan, Kan., native went to middle school with Illini assistant coach and offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood.
“On top of that, from a personal level, it was a great opportunity,” Ganta continued. “It was a new frontier in college sports. It was an untapped territory, uncharted. It was a cool opportunity for me to see, ‘OK, this is where the game is evolving to.’ I’d say I was probably the 10th (general manager) hired at the time, and now there’s maybe 70-80. (Brad Underwood) wanted me here to get ahead of the portal and the offseason that became this roster. I think it worked out for everybody. I got to see things with the team and felt pretty good, well prepared, for putting together what this team was this year.”
Ganta was intrigued by the challenge of essentially creating a job from scratch. While his official title at Illinois has existed in several iterations in the sport, there were no general managers in college basketball two years ago.
But now with revenue-sharing to go along with name, image and likeness, the position is a critical component these days.
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Neel Ganta was a graduate manager on Brad Underwood’s Illinois staff during the 2020-21 season and later returned to Champaign in December 2024 after he was hired as the program’s director of player personnel — essentially the Illini’s general manager. Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
Staying ahead of the portal
What Ganta came up with were three key factors to define his role.
Understanding player cost is key while acknowledging the market variance among high school, international and transfer portal prospects. Scouting and evaluating those players is also a significant part of the job. Creating structure and systems to present cost considerations and evaluations of potential prospects in an accessible way for the coaches and recruiters ties it all together.
“I think the influence of my background really helped kind of bring some structure to what is a really unstructured environment,” Ganta said.
That includes both his front-office experience and his educational background. He earned a bachelor’s in finance with a minor in computer science and certificates in data analytics and investment management from Kansas State in 2020 and a master’s in technology management with a concentration in business data analytics from Illinois in 2021.
“The portal is madness for a reason,” Ganta continued. “There’s just a lot of stuff going on. Being able to bring some sort of structure and organization to what seems like a very lawless, unstructured atmosphere is, to me, what differentiates the good teams from the ones that struggle when it comes to making those decisions.”
Ganta has put a bigger emphasis on analytics during his first full season in his role at Illinois. An NBA front office typically has four to six people working full-time in data analytics. The Illini had zero — at least from the front office perspective — before hiring interns Shreyas Taller, Rami Alkadri and Pranav Maddula.
“Fully dedicated on breaking down the numbers of the portal,” Ganta said to describe the work the interns provide. “We have our own internal tools we can use to decipher players that no other program in the country has. I think that’s a huge competitive advantage. Names come flying at you a million miles an hour once the portal opens. We’re able to quickly decipher statistically if they are a good fit for Illinois or not and then go deeper if they are.”
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Members of the Illinois men’s basketball program gathered for a team photo at Ubben Basketball Complex in Champaign on Oct. 2. Pictured, from left, are (front row) players Blake Fagbemi, AJ Redd, Brandon Lee, Ty Rodgers, Andrej Stojakovic, Ben Humrichous, Tomislav Ivisic, Zvonimir Ivisic, Jason Jakstys, David Mirkovic, Keaton Wagler, Jake Davis, Mihailo Petrovic and Kylan Boswell; (back row) director of branding and creative media Courtney Bay, director of strategy and analytics Patrick Bittle, director of operations and recruiting Kwa Jones, University of Illinois Police Lieutenant Joe McCullough, director of player personnel Neel Ganta, assistant coach/offensive coordinator Tyler Underwood, assistant coach Zach Hamer, associate head coach Orlando Antigua, head coach Brad Underwood, strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher, assistant coach Geoff Alexander, assistant coach Camryn Crocker, chief of staff Joey Biggs, assistant to the head coach Kevin Kruger, head men’s basketball athletic trainer Justin Games video coordinator and director of technology JC Keller and office administrator Nicole Anderson. Robin Scholz/The News-Gazette
The boss approves
Brad Underwood called Ganta’s advance work “tremendous” for the program. That goes beyond the tools he and his data analytics interns have developed.
Ganta spends time watching and evaluating players from across the college basketball landscape throughout the season. He’s also done research into NBA dynasties and powerhouse college programs looking for similarities to their successes.
“The group he has working with him — the research going into college players throughout the country in every program — has been second to none,” the Illinois coach said. “Can’t do it without him. He’s been invaluable and will continue to be here in the next couple months.
“I’ve always had tremendous respect for his intellect and how smart he is and how hard he works. He’s done just a knock-em-dead job. I’ve been very pleased and very impressed.”
Retention is big buzzword
Ganta has trust from Underwood to operate in his role because of the long-term relationship they’ve developed.
That’s also helped Ganta understand how to provide Underwood with the tools to build the type of roster he wants. Like an emphasis on positional size and shooting from a physical standpoint and the right fit from a character standpoint.
“You can identify great players, but identifying great players that fit your coach’s playing style, program, culture is very important,” Ganta said. “I think that’s the main difference between let’s say, just a general program that has a ton of money and picked talented guys, but maybe they weren’t the right fits. That’s what separates myself and Illinois from a lot of other programs is the mutual understanding and trust between us.”
The task of identifying the next crop of players to land in Champaign — beyond the the three incoming freshmen already signed in guard Lucas Morillo, guard Ethan Brown and forward Landon Davis — is about to begin in earnest.
The combination of Kylan Boswell and Ben Humrichous exhausting their eligibility and some NBA draft decisions to be made among the likes of Keaton Wagler, Andrej Stojakovic and David Mirkovic will create some obvious holes to fill on the roster.
But the first step won’t be immediately running to the transfer portal.
“One of the good things we’ll have going into play is retention is going to be huge,” Ganta said. “I think that’s going to be our cheat code — retaining what we have. When someone joins our team from the portal, they’re only here for like nine months. Getting them for another 12 is really what sets them apart. I think Brad has done an incredible job developing guys.
“We’re going to look in first. We’re not going to look out. We’re looking in. We want to keep the guys we’ve got. We’ve done a great job identifying the right ones. We want to keep them here and keep developing them.”