Texas A&M basketball elevates Warren Fitzpatrick to GM, hires Ole Miss' Clay Smith as director of operations

The Texas A&M basketball team has a new general manager. The Aggies promoted assistant general manager/director of operations Warren Fitzpatrick to that position while hiring Ole Miss director of operations Clay Smith in the same role, announcing both moves Wednesday.

Fitzpatrick followed A&M coach Bucky McMillan from Samford, joining his initial staff ahead of last season. He held several responsibilities in addition to his assistant general manager role, including monitoring the budget for the Aggies and helping oversee their donor relations, team travel, scholarships, housing, camps, clinics and several other administrative duties.

In his first offseason as assistant general manager, Fitzpatrick helped McMillan build an NCAA Tournament team from scratch. Despite not inheriting a scholarship player and needing to add 14, McMillan led the Aggies to a 22-12 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Following last season, Fitzpatrick assisted A&M with reloading again. The Aggies picked up six transfers, with former Kansas State guard PJ Haggerty headlining the group. They also ranked 18th nationally in the On3 Transfer Portal Index, which measures a team’s production during the transfer process relative to its roster and determines whether a program improved, stayed the same or declined. That calculation didn’t include new standout guard Bryson Warren, who came from the G League.

Before coming to A&M, Fitzpatrick spent four seasons at Samford serving various roles under McMillan. He began his time with the Bulldogs as a graduate assistant in the 2021-22 season before being named director of operations (2022-24) and chief of staff (2024-25). A native of Birmingham, Ala., Fitzpatrick played basketball under McMillan during his time leading Mountain Brook (Ala.) High and finished as a four-year letter winner for the men’s track and field team at Samford.

Smith started his college career at Ole Miss, spending the 2024-25 campaign as a graduate assistant and last season as direction of operations. He also served as a student manager at Mississippi State during the 2018-19 season.

The Aggies have yet to reveal their non-conference schedule for the 2026-27 season but are set to begin practicing next month.