Iowa State Men’s Basketball: Fred Hoiberg Hires New Director of Basketball Operations

Mar 15, 2013; Kansas City, MO, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Fred Hoiberg calls out a play against the Kansas Jayhawks in the second half during the quarterfinals of the Big 12 tournament at the Sprint Center. Kansas defeated Iowa State 88-73. Mandatory Credit: Peter G. Aiken-USA TODAY Sports

The Iowa State men’s basketball staff is being shuffled around after former Director of Basketball Operations, Jeff Rutter, left to be an assistant at Drake.

Randy Peterson of The Des Moines Register reports that Fred Hoiberg has moved Micah Byars from Director of Player Development to the vacant position for the upcoming 2012-13 season. Byars has held his previous position for the last two seasons and did so with incredible success while following the players’ academic status.

Here’s the statement made by Hoiberg:

"“Micah has been an extremely valuable member of our program the last two years. He is a very organized and driven individual who will flourish in his new role as Director of Operations.”"

How successful has the Iowa State basketball team been academically under Byars’ watch? Historic. From his bio page at Cyclones.com:

"Iowa State posted a pair of the best semester cumulative GPAs in school history and had a Big 12-best four members on the Academic All-Big 12 squad, including three first-teamers, in 2011-12 thanks to Byars’ mentoring."

Byars is originally from Gainesville, Florida, and graduated in 2006 at West Florida. He worked with the Central Florida staff for six years before joining the Cyclones.

Other men’s basketball updates:

• The Cyclones have picked up Northern Illinois transfer Abdel Nader. He averaged 13.1 points per game for a team that averaged 54 points per game.
• NBA mock drafts across the internet give Will Clyburn anywhere from a mid-to-late 2nd round pick, with some not selecting him at all. The highest I’ve seen him ranked is at WalterFootball.com with the 48th overall pick by the Los Angeles Lakers.