New IU executive director of basketball Ryan Carr is excited for the opportunity ahead in Bloomington
- Alex Bozich
- 3h ago
With over 20 years of experience at the highest level of the sport, Ryan Carr had no plans to leave the NBA and the Indiana Pacers.
In fact, the 1996 IU graduate believed he would finish his career with the organization, where he steadily rose through the ranks and was promoted to senior vice president of player personnel less than two years ago.
But after conversations with first-year IU basketball coach Darian DeVries this month and a subsequent offer to become the program’s executive director of basketball, which is effectively the program’s GM, Carr will officially leave his post with the Pacers at the end of this week and immediately get to work on roster-building efforts in Bloomington.
Carr, a native of Sumner, Washington, came to Bloomington in 1992 as a student and served as a manager under Bob Knight.
As a new era of IU basketball nears the stretch run of the regular season, Carr arrives ready to hit the ground running when the transfer portal opens in early April. He’s extremely passionate about the opportunity to rebuild a program that gave him his start in basketball.
“This school, this university has obviously shown a great desire to be a leader in this new era,” Carr said on Tuesday. “Obviously, football speaks for itself, but I think a hire like myself, their wherewithal to get me speaks to the dedication and to the commitment that they want to have.
“There aren’t too many NBA executives at my level that have made this jump. I wouldn’t have done it for any other school.”
Carr brings extensive scouting experience from more than 20 years in the NBA and strong relationships with agents to an IU staff that has been on the job in Bloomington for less than a year. The relationships with agents are key in the current era of college basketball, where player movement is largely driven by revenue sharing and NIL.
IU will have many roster spots to fill this spring, as six of the program’s top seven contributors this season will graduate in May.
That will leave the program heavily dependent on the transfer portal once again to build a team for the 2026-27 season. The Hoosiers might need a brand new starting five from the portal.
Long term, however, Carr believes the approach to roster building in college basketball is a more balanced mix of high school recruiting and the transfer portal.
IU has three high school players coming to Bloomington next season: Prince-Alexander Moody, Vaughn Karvala and Trevor Manhertz.
“We’ll get this roster a little more balanced with more high school kids developing,” Carr said. “Which I kind of see as like draft picks and the portal is free agency. We need to get to the point that the roster is more balanced.”
The lack of balance on the current roster stems from last spring’s coaching change, when IU and Mike Woodson parted ways after four seasons. No scholarship players returned from the 2024-25 roster after the program hired DeVries in March of 2025.
In an up-and-down season that has the Hoosiers sitting at 17-11 and 8-9 in the Big Ten, the program must improve at key positions like point guard and center to improve its standing in the conference.
Indiana had a few hits in the portal last spring, most notably Lamar Wilkerson, but too many misses that have contributed to inconsistencies throughout the season.
The player evaluation piece, a centerpiece of Carr’s role throughout his career with the Pacers, should be one of his biggest strengths in his new position in Bloomington.
“I do think there are ways to look at players, compare players, and make good decisions,” Carr explained. “But it all comes down to evaluating players and maybe not evaluating portal rankings, or even high school rankings. Sometimes those don’t tell the whole story.
“With the Pacers, we’ve made a pretty good living at taking guys who maybe other teams didn’t like as much as we did. We draft them later, we sign them, we trade for them after it didn’t seem like they were doing well with another team. They end up flourishing because we believed in our scouting process and our evaluation.”
Relationships are also pivotal for Carr.
Carr was effusive in his praise for the ownership, executives and coaches he’s worked with for the Pacers, including Herb Simon, Steve Simon, Steven Rails, Kevin Pritchard, Chad Buchanan, Ted Wu, Rick Carlisle and Larry Bird.
He now looks forward to building the next era of IU basketball with DeVries and an IU staff he believes is already doing many positive things.
Carr said he and DeVries stayed in touch over the summer and have texted throughout the season. Talks about the opportunity to come to Bloomington intensified over the last couple of weeks, ultimately leading Carr to return to his alma mater.
“I wouldn’t have done it for any other school,” Carr said. “Indiana is the place that I would come and do it and I can’t wait to get started.”