Auburn basketball hiring Matt Gatens to general manager, assistant to head coach role

Auburn is hiring Matt Gatens to serve in a dual role as the men’s basketball program’s general manager and assistant to the head coach, per Auburn Live‘s Justin Hokanson. Gatens began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Auburn but, most recently, has served as an assistant coach at Iowa for the past three years.

In his three seasons coaching at Iowa, the Hawkeyes posted a 55-45 overall record and a 28-32 mark in conference play. Gatens helped boost the program to an NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2022-23 campaign, along with an NIT appearance in the following season.

After Iowa went 7-13 in conference play and didn’t reach the Big Dance this past season, Iowa fired longtime head coach Fran McCaffery. In turn, Gatens began searching for a new job, and he will now help Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl and the Tigers.

Before coaching at Iowa, Gatens spent four seasons on Drake‘s staff. He served as director of operations his first two years before being elevated to an assistant coach in his last two seasons with the program.

With Gatens’ help, Drake won the 2019 Missouri Valley Conference regular season title. Additionally, the Bulldogs made an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2021, and reached two Missouri Valley Tournament championship games.

As a graduate assistant at Auburn, Matt Gatens assisted in travel, development, scouting, video and camps. He was also responsible for aiding in the development of the team’s guards, who at the time were All-SEC selections Bryce Brown and Jared Harper.

Before Gatens ever took up coaching, he was a star on the court. Gatens was a four-year starter at Iowa from 2009-12. Gatens was a two-time All-Big Ten selection, two-time team captain and a member of the 2009 Big Ten All-Freshman team.

He amassed 1,635 career points and 239 3-pointers, ranking 10th and third, respectively, in Iowa history. In 128 career games, he averaged 12.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 steals per contest. Now, Gatens will look to use his wealth of knowledge to help Auburn capture its first national title.

Auburn is coming off a standout season. The Tigers finished the 2024-25 campaign with a 32-6 overall record, and reached their second Final Four in program history.

Auburn also won the SEC regular-season conference title for the third time in Bruce Pearl’s tenure. Next year’s team will have big shoes to fill, but with Gatens by his side, Pearl will have a chance to meet, and even exceed, fans’ expectations.