Lady Vol Hoops’ Gabe Lazo Chosen For TopConnect – University of Tennessee Athletics

KNOXVILLE — First-year Tennessee women’s basketball assistant coach Gabe Lazo has been selected to participate in the prestigious 2024 TopConnect Basketball Symposium taking place Monday at the Thomas & Mack Center on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
 
TopConnect, presented by Teamworks and VanWagner, and developed by ETSU Athletic Director Dr. Richard Sander, identifies the top assistant basketball coaches in the country. The program connects them with mid-major athletic directors, providing tremendous networking and leadership development opportunities for both parties.
 

In its seventh year, TopConnect develops educational programming that allows these top assistant coaches to hear from a variety of successful leaders and speakers. The 2024 symposium is headlined by Kristi Dosh of College Sports Solutions and Dan Poneman of Poneman & Naiditch Representation.
 
Panel discussions include: First- and Second-Year Head Coaches; Looking Back: If I Knew Then What I Know Now; New Realities of College Athletics: NIL; Athletic Directors: Who, Why, How and What; and Search Firms.
 

Breakout session topics include: Managing Up; NIL & Collectives; Creating and Maintaining Culture, and Roster Management/Staff Management.
 
The three-word mantra of “Connect. Prepare. Lead.” identifies the purpose of TopConnect.
 
Lazo, who is in his eighth season in coaching at the collegiate level, has accumulated a 114-95 record as an assistant at four schools over a seven-year period. The teams he has helped lead have recorded three postseason appearances (2 NCAA, 1 WBIT), a conference championship and a conference tournament title.
 
The Miami, Fla., native has served collegiately at FIU, Stony Brook, George Washington, Mississippi State and now Tennessee. He spent two seasons at MSU and advanced to the level of associate head coach in Starkville before joining Kim Caldwell’s inaugural Lady Vols staff in April of 2024.
 
If you have questions regarding TopConnect, please contact Dr. Richard Sander at sander@etsu.edu. TopConnect works in conjunction with Connected Media, LLC, East Tennessee State University’s Doctoral program in Global Sport Leadership, VanWagner and Teamworks.