Arkansas State men's basketball head coach Ryan Pannone named Max Thorpe as the program's Director of Player Development ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Thorpe joins the program after spending this past season as a graduate manager at Alabama. There, he helped the Crimson Tide to an Elite Eight finish in the NCAA Tournament. With the Tide, Thorpe organized and ran workouts, created personnel and scouting report video edits, and also helped scout future opponents.
"Max Thorpe, our director of player development, comes to us after spending one year as a GA at Alabama, and previously was a player at Florida State University. Max has a great eye for detail, and an understanding and recognition of player development, along with player evaluation in terms of being able to scout high-end talent for us and how it fits our offensive system. His ability to project talent and fit within how we want to play is really important. He's the only staff member coming from Alabama, and he has seen the growth of how we play offensively and defensively within that system. He held a huge reputation at the University of Alabama with his commitment, his work ethic, of being a guy that gets stuff done. When we're building out the staff, we're constantly looking for people who get stuff done, and he's one of those."
Prior to joining the Alabama staff, the Clearwater, Florida, native spent four seasons as a student-athlete at Florida State. He is the son of noted NBA Player Development Specialist and Life Coach David Thorpe.
Thorpe earned his bachelor's degree in sport management at FSU, as well as a master's certificate in athletic coaching. During his time as a student-athlete, Thorpe served three summers as a camp counselor at J. Leonard Hamilton Basketball Camp.
