Sunday, June 22, 2025
Who could have foretold when the famous book by Michael Lewis “Moneyball” came out in 2003, and later (2011) made into the Academy Award winning movie starring Brad Pitt by the same name, that the author was prescient enough to coin a phrase that could aptly describe the current state of college athletics in 2025.
The main theme of the book and movie is a dramatization of the revolutionary introduction of in-depth statistical analytics utilized in the evaluation of talent and advanced strategies for completing in major league baseball. Something that is now assumed as a given across all competitive professional sports, just a few years later
It was more the raw meaning that the term “Moneyball” connotes, not the theme of its contents, that I thought was applicable in characterizing all the dramatic changes that college basketball coaches are having to address on the fly.
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As the lines have been blurred to such a degree between college and professional athletics, with the former increasingly morphing into the latter, so too are the shaping of coaching staffs within the college realm evolving to reflect that reality.
In this context of the NIL, pay-to-play professional world of college basketball, Kim English’s two new assistant coach hires, former PC All-American NBA player Ryan Gomes and former Cleveland Cavalier assistant coach Bryan Tibaldi, can be best understood.
Nate Tomlinson, who has been a Kim English assistant for the last two years, recently decided to return to his Alma Mater, Colorado, as an assistant to his old head coach, Tad Boyle. He has deep connections there, having been a four-year starter from 2008 to 2012. His wife is also a former graduate and former Volleyball player for the Buffaloes.
Thus, the cause of one of the vacancies.
Yes, in the economic competition of acquiring talent through the portal, money is important. But with the addition of these two quality pieces, it’s a creative way for Coach English to send the message that we can also put you in the best position to develop your talent and put you on the best pathway to get to the next level if that’s your goal.
And with the majority of basketball players aspiring to play at the Big East level, that is their primary ambition.
As we know, the first thing these young players and prospects will do is Google both Gomes and Tibaldi.
They will learn that Gomes had a mighty impressive college career. The new players who might not be that familiar with the school’s tradition will be surprised to find out that he is the leading scorer in PC’s long history- 2,138 points, averaging 18.43 points over a 4-year career.
His junior year stats of 18.9 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.6 steals were good enough to earn him AP 1st team All-American status in 2004
They’ll go on to see that as a 2nd round pick (# 50) by the Boston Celtics in 2005, he went on to a very productive 7 year career in the NBA playing for three different teams – the Celtics, Timberwolves, and Clippers, and averaging double figures for 4 of those years.
But it’s just not those Bona Fides, that will help him connect with the current players. He began his coaching career with the G-League affiliate of the Brooklyn Nets, the Long Island Nets in 2016-2017. From there he did some color work for CBS (2019-2021)before continuing his coaching career with the prominent Overtime Elite AAU program in the Atlanta area (2021-2023) developing a number of top prospects for the college ranks That lead to a position as a player development coach with the Portland Trail Blazers where he spent the last 2 years (2023-2025)
I was able to catch up with Gomes’ old PC coach, Tim Welsh, who coached at Providence from 1998-2008, and coached Gomes all of his four years at PC 2001-2005. Tim thinks this is a great opportunity for his former player and that he’s sure that all of the qualities that enabled him to go from an under-recruited 6’7” 240 lb HS player to a 1st team All-American will carry him to a successful coaching career. Welsh said that given Gomes’ personality and makeup, he won’t just approach the job as an entitled former star player. He’s confident that Coach English watched him work with guys and was impressed with how he went about his business.
Bryan Tibaldi is the other new addition to Kim English’s coaching staff. The two new hires offer another glaring example of how the landscape of college basketball has changed and how his hiring reflects that dramatic change.
There is not enough space here to go into a lot of detail about Tibaldi’s basketball odyssey that has brought him here, but it’s instructive to offer the general outline of his resume:
2007-2009- Graduate Assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State
2009-2011- Chicago Bulls – assistant video coordinator-basketball operations assistant
2011- 2015 -University of Missouri, video coordinator, Director of Basketball Operations
2015-2017- DePaul University, Director of Basketball Operations
2017-2019- Cleveland State, Assistant Coach
2019-2021- Assistant Coach, G- League Cleveland Charge, Cleveland Cavaliers affiliate
2021-2024- Cleveland Cavaliers, 3 years Player Development/ Video assistant coordinator
2024-2025- Cleveland Cavaliers, promoted to full-time Assistant Coach
June 10, 2025- Assistant Coach, Providence College
The main point of itemizing Tibaldi’s basketball history is to illustrate the amount of dues paying there was on his part to get to this point, especially with regard to his time (about 6 years) with the Cleveland Cavaliers NBA franchise, culminating in his being promoted to a full time assistant on the bench for a team with the second best record in the league ( 64W-18L) and best record in the Eastern Conference.
Tibaldi explained to me that his duties in Cleveland included practice planning and instruction, planning and conducting individual workouts and film sessions with players, scouting opponents, helping with game preparations, and overseeing the video and player development staff.
Of course there is a high comfort level for English towards Tibaldi since he is the person back in English’s senior year at Missouri (2012) that prepared him for that year’s NBA draft before being taken by the Pistons in the 2nd round (44th pick) This year’s staff should be a very close nit group when you consider also that when Tibaldi was an assistant at Cleveland State (2017-2019) before joining the Cavalier’s organization, fellow assistant Dennis Felton was the head coach for Cleveland State at that time
Tibaldi, beginning with his playing as a walk-on and working for Tom Izzo at Michigan State, working alongside and observing/ assisting in the intense preparation methods of Tom Thibodeau when at the Chicago Bulls, and up to his most recent stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers where he was on the bench assisting with the current NBA Coach of the Year, Kenny Atkinson, has acquired a lot of experiences with some great coaches and high level talent that he can share with current and future players in the PC program.
It wasn’t an easy decision for him to make the transition back to the college game but he basically said it’s a testament in how much he believes in English’s potential as a coach and in someone he’s maintained a close relationship with since his days back at Missouri.
In our recent conversation, I thought it was interesting to hear him say that while he understands how the chaos that’s descended upon college basketball has pushed some of the old guard coaches into retirement, he’s actually embracing the mayhem as an exciting challenge at this point in his career.
With his and Gomes’ addition to the staff this year, English is also gaining two more valuable sets of eyes to help evaluate the talent when it becomes available in the all-important and powerful portal, obviously, with the amount of money. It becomes more and more crucial to maximize whatever resources you have available in forming your roster. Both coaches have had experience working with and evaluating talent at the highest levels.
Given all the acquired professional/NBA skills and experience that Gomes and Tibaldi bring to the table, it’s not surprising that they both feel comfortable in the modern college game, and the college game now feels comfortable and welcomes them with open arms
Kevin Stacom is one of the most accomplished Providence College basketball players in history. An All-American at Providence, Stacom was a second-round NBA draft pick, played six years in the NBA, and won an NBA championship as a member of the Boston Celtics.
After his playing career, Stacom coached at the college level and served as an NBA scout for nearly 30 years for the Golden State Warriors and Dallas Mavericks.
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