Student manager Amir Khan living ‘surreal’ moment as McNeese State prepares for March Madness

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Last month, when Amir Khan walked with McNeese State’s basketball team down the tunnel before its game against Texas A&M Corpus-Christi, he was doing what he’d always done.

With a Bluetooth boom box draped over his shoulder, the thump of rap lyrics blared out as the team walked alongside Khan, one of the team’s student managers. This time, he knew the lyrics to Lud Foe’s “In & Out” and decided to sing along.

“Not only did I know the song but it is one of my favorite songs,” Khan told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “So yeah, I just rapped a few of the lyrics. Some of the players saw that I was rapping it and they just kind of hyped me up telling me, ‘Hey, just keep going, rap for us!’ We had the camera on us, but that’s usually not a new thing. So yeah, I just I just rapping and having fun with it.”

That video was posted on X by team social media director Phillip Mitchell Jr. and went viral, logging nearly 200,000 views.

“Never felt this much hype before a game,” Mitchell wrote. “Easily one of my all-time favorite filming moments.”

The Cowboys won, part of their 11-game win streak to end the season. A month later, McNeese State is back in the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year, this time as a No. 12 seed set to take on fifth-seeded Clemson in the first round of the Midwest Region on Thursday.

The 22-year-old Khan never envisioned this level of fame when he enrolled at the school in his hometown of Lake Charles, Louisiana, two years ago and applied for the manager job because of his affinity for coach Will Wade, whom he’d cheered for while Wade was coaching LSU.

“(Wade) brought an energy to that team that LSU basketball had never felt,” Khan said. “So whenever I saw that I had a chance to work for him, I had to step in and do it.”

While Wade is one of the hottest names among schools looking for a coach, Khan has turned his viral fame into real dollars, becoming the first known student basketball manager to receive a name, image and likeness deal. He has endorsements from Buffalo Wild Wings, TickPick and Insomnia Cookies. TickPick gave him a logo sticker that was on his boom box. Buffalo Wild Wings sent him a branded Bumpboxx, and he filmed a spot for Insomnia Cookies.

All the attention has brought more energy to the Cowboys as they seek their first tournament win.

“It’s been absolutely surreal,” he said. “I’ve been a big March Madness for my whole life. And just to be here and have the attention on me, it’s more than I’d ever imagined.”

Or his family. Khan said his parents love the buzz around him, which has also reached his grandparents.

“My mom’s parents had never been on social media, but now they have every social media app,” Khan said. “They’re constantly scrolling and sending me likes.”

Wade said Khan’s work ethic has made him indispensable.

“He’s a servant leader in the sense that when I was a manager at Clemson, you’re at a bigger school. You have scholarship money we can divvy out. We’re McNeese. We have no scholarship money,” Wade said. “This is strictly volunteer. When we got the job, we had no managers, we had nothing.”

Khan volunteered for the role, sometimes getting to the facility as early as 5:30 a.m.

“I joked with him. He’s our clock guy, which is the hardest thing to do in practice,” Wade said. “You have to know the scoring in each of the drills. I said, ‘Man, all this fame is getting to your head. You have to buckle in.’”

Junior guard DJ Richards Jr. said Khan is worthy of all the attention.

“The managers, they really don’t get credit for what they do,” Richards said. “They follow us all year. They rebound for us. They get up early and then they still have to go to class and come back and rebound again. ... I love that Amir is getting this. They all do a lot of good things for us. All we do is put the ball in the hoop. I hope it keeps going.”

A senior sports management major, Khan said he plans to be smart with most of his NIL money

“I’ve just got to pay for school,” he said. “I still live at home right now, so just trying to keep it saved.”

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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness