Wes Miller Gives Deep Insight on Corey Evans Early Impact as Cincinnati's General Manager

  UC head basketball coach Wes Miller met with the media on Wednesday and went in depth on what new general manager Corey Evans' role has looked like over the first few months of his tenure.

Evans has been influential in the roster and relationship building for this team, but Miller was clear that his role is collaborative with the rest of the staff. Evans isn't making the final decisions over Miller.

"What I can tell you about Corey's position is Corey and I've had a relationship for over a decade that began when he was doing grassroots scouting as a youngster, as a college student, and was doing about as good of a job scouting as anybody that I witnessed in my time in coaching," Miller explained. "And he rose up quick, rose up into Rivals and some other things, and then was recognized by Sam Presti, and spent five years with the Oklahoma City Thunder. So we've had an extremely long relationship professionally that turned into a friendship over time. And as we discussed this role, we didn't just say, 'Come be the general manager.' We discussed over months what that would look like, how we would carve that role out in the short term for Cincinnati basketball, and how that continued to evolve over time."

Evans has helped take some burden off the plate of the staff while also giving UC a voice at major basketball events even more often than it had before.

The Bearcats have professionalized their adaptation to college athletics' changes more and more throughout this decade.

"Think about the role that he was in in Oklahoma City, and what he was doing scouting, and the relationships he has all over the world at every level of basketball," Miller noted. "He was able to give us a ton of intel. He worked to understand Presti, who's arguably the best general manager in sports. So as we were piecing together the roster and we were talking about how parts fit together and strategies to build a roster, I thought he brought great insight and great perspective into that conversation. He had great relationships already with our other staff members before he took the job. 

"So it was kind of a seamless transition in terms of relationships and the ability to coexist and work together. And I think as we got the roster set, which was primarily the area he was working with our program on, he's now evolving into other areas of player, personnel, and organization and relationship building out in the world, and it's really important, like he's out in Las Vegas for NBA Summer League all week. It's really, really important that somebody is out and about."

It's a great peek into what Evans is doing day-to-day in this new role that Cincinnati is hoping will entrench the program as an NCAA Tournament team every season.

The work continues for Cincinnati's current roster throughout this summer before a fun non-conference slate featuring Georgia, Louisville, and Xavier matchups.