Ex-Jazz scouting coordinator came from hoop family, rejoins Drew crew
(Phoenix, AZ) Jake Lindsey’s arrival as Grand Canyon basketball’s new director of player personnel was born out of his life’s most trying time.
Lindsey’s path from basketball roster to basketball staff began in earnest four years ago when he was diagnosed with a neurological disorder that ended his Baylor playing career. Already sidelined after hip surgery, Lindsey began video work with Baylor coaches for his final Bears season before joining the Utah Jazz’s basketball operations for three years.
Lindsey interned two years for the Jazz, where his father, Dennis, was general manager and then vice president of basketball operations from 2012 to 2021. For the past year, the younger Lindsey served as Utah’s coordinator of college scouting.
After playing on two NCAA tournament qualifiers and one NIT team under Baylor head coach Scott Drew, Lindsey reunites with a premiere college basketball coaching family as the Lopes’ director of player personnel for third-year head coach Bryce Drew, Scott’s brother.
“When Coach called, it was a situation where my family has been familiar with his family for a long time, so we had a lot of built-in trust,” Lindsey said. “As he described what Grand Canyon University is about and its mission, that really struck home with me and my wife (Tiger). Bryce had a lot of energy talking about the program and the support that the administration and the fans provide.”
Lindsey, 25, played on a Sweet 16 team at Baylor and averaged 4.6 points and 3.3 assists with 18 starts over his last two seasons. Lindsey already was dealing with a hip impingement that led to a fracture and 2018 surgery before shoulder nerve pain persisted.
A series of exams did not reveal the issue until electromyography showed no response in two of his rotator cuff muscles. With his back muscles in atrophy, he was diagnosed with Parsonage-Turner Syndrome. The neurological disorder afflicts one in 100,000 people.
“That year was hard at the time, but it gave me an opportunity to learn about what the other side of basketball was,” Lindsey said. “It was a first transition exposure to the coaching side of it and what it looks like to get to invest with young guys’ development. That piece is something I’m really looking forward to.”
Lindsey’s passion for building relationships and developing players on and off the court was fostered by his tenure with Jazz, which began with working for a father whose career included being on the Houston Rockets staff when it drafted Bryce Drew 16th overall in 1998.
Lindsey called Utah general manager Justin Zanik “a phenomenal mentor” who believed joining GCU and Bryce Drew would be an ideal career move.
“We are very excited about the addition of Jake Lindsey,” Bryce Drew said. “He has been very successful as a player and as a scout in NBA. Being from a basketball family, he has been around the game his whole life. His knowledge, passion and basketball experiences will help our program.”
Lindsey’s final non-playing season at Baylor coincided with Peyton Prudhomme, the former Bears graduate assistant who has been GCU’s director of video operations for two years, including the Lopes’ first NCAA Division I tournament appearance in 2021.
Lindsey reunites on the Lopes staff with Prudhomme, who becomes the program’s director of basketball operations this year.
“What I told Coach was I just want to come in and learn,” Lindsey said. “All the things that go into being on a college staff, whether it be logistical, statistical or film work, I want to be a resource and be available to make the staff’s lives easier in whatever way they need.
“I’m just really humbled and grateful that Coach wanted to bring me in. Coach’s excitement for the current group of players was exciting to me. He was pretty strong on the character and the talent of the group. That makes you excited when a successful, accomplished coach has authentic excitement about a team.”
Lindsey and his wife, Tiger, move to Phoenix with their son, Dawson, who was born in April.
Press Release courtesy of Grand Canyon University Athletics – Paul Coro
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