Scott Daughtry (HCB, ’24; MSBA, ’25; MBA, ’26) recently stepped into the role of director of strategy for Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball. He credits his time in the University for Tennessee, Knoxville, Haslam College of Business Department of Business Analytics and Statistics (BAS) for preparing him for the role. Coming into his undergraduate career in 2021, Daughtry knew he wanted to combine his interest in math, statistics and business, and he found what he was looking for in Haslam’s business analytics undergraduate program.
“I didn’t realize how good a choice that would be back then,” Daughtry says.
Bringing Business Analytics to Basketball Through Mentorship
Daughtry played basketball in high school, so he was thrilled to land a manager internship with the UT men’s basketball team in his first year at the university, and he was promoted to head manager in 2022. During that time, Daughtry began applying business analytics to some of the team’s data. However, accessing the data required him to use an unfamiliar application. That’s when Daughtry reached out to BAS faculty for guidance. After Lecturer Adam Spannbauer assisted Daughtry with his data work, Daughtry continued exploring business analytics with Spannbauer, and their collaboration grew.
“I began mentoring Scott through the BAS Melton Scholars program, where he worked on applying analytics to transfer portal recruiting,” Spannbauer says. “I enjoy working with Scott. He’s talented, driven and an all-around great guy.”
Daughtry has nothing but praise for all his professors, but he considers his relationship with Spannbauer special.
“Even before I was a Melton Scholar for him, Adam would make time during the week to help me with challenges I was facing,” Daughtry says.
Embracing Opportunities
In the summer of 2022, Daughtry interned with the Atlanta Hawks front office, then with the Indiana Pacers the following summer. Combining input from his growing NBA network and the know-how gained in these roles with his BAS curriculum, Daughtry took on more complex data analysis for Vols. This effort paid off — at the beginning of Daughtry’s senior year, Rick Barnes, UT men’s basketball head coach, asked him to work solely on business analytics for the team.
Barnes’ faith in Daughtry continued to grow, and the coach soon approached Daughtry with an idea: Earn a master’s degree and take on a graduate assistantship with the basketball team. Although Daughtry still had three credits remaining to complete his bachelor’s degree, BAS program leaders encouraged him to apply for graduate credit as an undergraduate, allowing him to begin his Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) studies early. Daughtry earned his B.S. in 2024, his MSBA in 2025 and is working toward his MBA, expecting to graduate in 2026.
“Bogdan Bichescu, Christine Vossler and others in the BAS department were so helpful to me,” Daughtry says. “They really wanted me to seize the opportunities available to me, not only encouraging me in my education, but also in my career. My experience in Haslam’s BAS program helped me secure work with the Vol’s basketball team and two incredible NBA internships — Now, I can also say my BAS education got me my first full-time role.”
Welcoming a Challenge
The basketball team created its director of strategy position in response to the changing face of college sports. With the emergence of name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities, increased transfer portal use, revenues sharing and salary caps, the team needs a business professional who can analyze the impact of such new developments on recruiting and more. When Barnes asked Daughtry if he would be interested in applying for this new position, the enthusiastic analyst had only two words. “Heck, yes,” Daughtry replied.
“I always wanted to work for a basketball team’s front office, and now I get to pursue my dream job for my alma mater,” he says. “I feel so lucky to do something I love and take on new challenges.”
As director of strategy, Daughtry takes on responsibilities like those of a front office NBA data analyst. His work includes developing machine learning models to identify optimal high school recruits and forecast current players’ future performance, building databases of potential college transfers and gathering data on EuroLeague teams for international scouting. These efforts place UT in a rarified group among men’s college basketball programs.
“Now, we’re one of the only college basketball teams that has a statistical model that’s similar to what all 30 NBA teams use,” Daughtry says.
A Business Analytics-Basketball Pipeline
Daughtry praises both the UT men’s basketball team and Haslam’s BAS department for the support and flexibility they provided, allowing him to successfully balance his academic and professional commitments. He plans to keep the programs connected by presenting analytics challenges for BAS students to evaluate.
“The MSBA program has a capstone class where students work on an analytics project for a company,” Daughtry says. “I have so much data, I could give a project to a capstone group next year.”
He also intends to bring BAS students into the men’s basketball program as interns, having already lined up a Melton Scholar for next year. “I want Haslam business analytics students — especially MSBA students — that are driven and ready to crank out good work,” Daughtry concludes.
Michael Galbreth, head of the BAS department and Pilot Corporation Chair of Excellence, says the program is excited to team with Daughtry on basketball analytics projects.
“We can’t wait to continue our work with UT men’s basketball with Scott in the director position,” Galbreth says. “Basketball analytics is exactly the sort of real-world, complex analytical challenge our students thrive on.”
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CONTACT: Scott McNutt, senior business writer/publicist, rmcnutt4@utk.edu
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