Indiana State men’s basketball coach Matthew Graves, 51, is a busy man and has many tasks outside of just games and practices.
“The off-season has really changed so much in the last couple years,” Graves said. “You used to actually have some downtime in the month of May.”
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With the impact of the NCAA transfer portal and NIL (name, image and likeness), it has taken until the last weekend in May for his staff to finish filling ISU’s 2024-25 roster.
NIL emerged in 2021 as the NCAA’s system allowing college athletes to make money from promotions that use their name, image or likeness, as well as for product endorsements and marketing activities.
“It’s not final from [being] something where we can announce it, but kind of verbally we have our roster completed,” Graves said. “So it’s taken us all the way till essentially June 1st to get the roster done, which is rare.
“I’d say in the offseason, right after the season is a big time to reflect on how the season went, the good the bad the ugly, [and] what needs we can address,” he added. “But also, [it] goes to what players can we retain. That’s a big part of that initial few weeks after the season, [which] is trying to figure out how we can retain guys, keep guys in the program and then you get into the portal combat stuff.”
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The NCAA transfer portal, which took effect in 2018, has eased student-athletes’ ability to switch colleges after a season ends. Following ISU’s 32-7 NIT runner-up finish in 2023-24, the team’s starters and key reserves all transferred elsewhere. Then-Sycamores coach Josh Schertz also departed for a more lucrative position at Saint Louis University and Graves stepped up from top assistant to head coach.
Graves and his staff spend hours watching film, taking notes, making phone calls and trying to assess recruits that could best fit ISU’s needs.
“That recruiting piece takes up a lot of time,” Graves said.
After the recruiting is done, Graves said game scheduling begins. That involves making phone calls and trying to figure out which potential nonconference opponents are available, what dates are available, and meeting scheduling policies set by the Missouri Valley Conference, which can be challenging. Dates are blocked off for the MVC games.
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One change this year involves the Sycamores playing two MVC games the week before Christmas. Knowing that, the coaches can build a schedule around that situation.
Last season, the Sycamores finished 14-18 overall and 8-12 in MVC play and were knocked out in the first game of the MVC tournament 86-85 by Southern Illinois.
“Most years, you’re going to know, between opening night — which is this year is November 3rd — all the way to Christmas, you have a window you have 11 games you have to try to fit in for the nonconference,” Graves said. “But in that week before Christmas, you have two games that are going to be set by the Missouri Valley Conference, and then every game after Christmas is obviously a Missouri Valley Conference game.”
There are some exceptions to that, however. Last season, ISU played at Ohio State after Christmas. That twist requires a waiver, Graves said.
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One big nonconference game for the upcoming 2025-26 season involves the Sycamores playing Nov. 14 at national powerhouse Duke in Durham, North Carolina. Graves said he has a good friend on the Duke staff, Mike Schrage, who serves as special assistant to the head coach.
“Mike and I have known each other a long time and we just had a conversation about, ‘Hey, one of these days I’d love a chance to take a team that I’m a part of — whether that’s as an assistant coach or now a head coach — and be able to take them to Cameron Indoor [Stadium] and give them that type of experience,” Graves said.
Graves experienced Cameron’s atmosphere in the 2002-03 when he was an assistant coach at Butler and the Bulldogs played at Duke.
“I think being able to do that is really good for your team,” Graves said.
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Last year, the Sycamores played a power-conference foe at Ohio State; the season before that, the Sycamores played at Alabama and Michigan State.
“Every year that I’ve been involved in scheduling and every year that I’m the head coach here at Indiana State, we’re going to try to do a game like that,” Graves said. “Because I think it’s good for the school, it’s good for our program and it’s something the guys want to do.”
Graves has only a few schools that remain on his bucket list of places to play, but said knocking those off that wish list would be great.
The team also has ISU’s summer youth camps to put together and that activity starts this month.
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“We have two weeks of little kids camps coming up, so [we’re] making sure that the T-shirts are ordered and we have camp workers and the meals and all that stuff is there,” Graves said.
Graves also noted how they’ve hired two new assistant coaches ahead of next season and have two new grad assistants they have to hire. He said there’s been a lot involved in this offseason. ISU has not named those two assistant coaches yet.
“Every day you just kind of tackle a different segment of that,” Graves said. “You spend maybe it’s 30 minutes on a piece of that pie one day, and the next day it’s two hours. It’s really segmented and your hand’s in a lot of different hats in the offseason.”
Once the season starts, he and the coaches continue recruiting for the next class, which could involve high school seniors and juniors and junior-college players.
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“You are also continuing to evaluate your team, where you’re at. You’re scouting for the next opponent. You’re always working on fundraising and cultivating relationships with people that are looking to give to the program, provide for the program. And then there’s always that important thing where you have family time,” Graves said.
With how busy his job is, he noted the frustration in missing important games or other events for his kids especially during the season.
His family includes wife Susan and daughters Abby and Lily. Lily played high school basketball at Franklin Central in Indianapolis and is currently committed to play at Southern Indiana, while Abby played high school volleyball at Franklin Central.
Graves himself hails from Switz City, where he attended White River Valley High School before heading to Indianapolis to play and study at Butler University. Afterward, Graves served as a Butler assistant coach. He then moved on to be head coach at South Alabama for five seasons before returning to the Midwest to be an assistant at Evansville, then Xavier and finally on Schertz’s ISU staff.
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It’s a time-consuming profession.
“You’re gone. You’re asked to do a lot. There are a lot of long hours,” Graves said. “So being able to balance the family aspect of it can be challenging at times.
“But there are tradeoffs to that,” he added. “I joke about when my kids were younger, they’d been on a chartered flight before. And how many little kids can say they’ve been on a chartered flight or they’ve sat court side at a Final Four game? Different things like that.”
Meanwhile, he also feels the frustrations of the ever-changing landscape of college basketball, or more so the NCAA as a whole. The rules and guidelines seem to be in place one year, and then are flipped the next year.
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“That gets frustrating from year to year, as well,” Graves said.
Still, Graves said the most enjoyment he gets with his job is interacting with people, whether that’s media, getting to help watch and develop their young players in their program, meeting donors and hearing their stories, or meeting recruits and their families.
“This is a people business,” Graves said.
The interactions are a fun side of his job.
“I’m thankful for this opportunity, thankful to be able to sit in this seat. I don’t take it lightly,” Graves said.
“But just being able to be in a place and a community that embraces not only men’s basketball, but athletics here at Indiana State, it’s really important. You’re really valued and I just appreciate all the support that I get to be able to put our best foot forward for not only the men’s basketball program, but for our university at large.”
