BYU Basketball Hires 3 New Graduate Assistants

Graduate assistants are often an overlooked part of a program, but they do a lot of behind the scenes work with film prep, practice work, player relationship building, and countless other things that go unnoticed.

BYU hoops will have 4 graduate assistants this year, one more than last season. Carsen Williams remains on for his second season, while BYU added Melvin Goins, Matt Santoro, and Leander Ridgeway. Below is a little snippet about the 3 newcomers.

Melvin Goins

Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images

Goins college career ended in 2011 after playing at Ball State and Tennessee. He started all 33 games for the Vols his senior year where he led them to a 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Since then, Goins has been a professional basketball player across the world for multiple years and held various basketball roles. He was most recently as assistant coach for Balboa City School (San Diego) and a player development coach. He is the only BYU grad assistant in his 30s.

IG: coach_goins

Twitter: MelvinGoins11

Matt Santoro

Santoro spent 4 years as a student manager for Pitt’s men’s basketball team from 2018-2022. He got into the coaching pool last season at D3 Gwynedd Mercy University as an assistant coach and video coordinator. He also worked in the private sector as a finance analyst in Philadelphia while an assistant.

IG: mattsantoro33

Twitter: mattsantoro33

Leander Ridgeway

Ridgeway played his last two seasons of college hoops at D3 Ashbury university where he was first team all-conference and averaged 17 points and 7.6 rebounds in two seasons. He played at Lee University in Kentucky prior to joining Ashbury. The Lexington, Kentucky native played a year of pro ball in Mexico before joining BYU’s staff.

IG: lrjr3

Twitter: Leander_Jr