Eugene Tulyagijja on Knicks move: ‘It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down’
Former Syracuse men's basketball data analyst Eugene Tulyagijja discussed in an interview with the Daily Orange his new job with the New York Knicks. Angelina Grevi | Staff Photographer
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Eugene Tulyagijja hopped in his car to head from Syracuse to New York City around 5 a.m. on Wednesday. Roughly five hours later, he arrived and began the first day of his new job.
The next thing he knew, he was in Madison Square Garden, getting ready for the New York Knicks’ season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Unlike most 22-year-olds, Tulyagijja wasn’t there to enjoy the game from the stands. Instead, he was in the Knicks’ locker room, preparing information for the coaching staff to have once the final buzzer sounded.
After serving as Syracuse men’s basketball’s data analyst for the 2024-25 season, Wednesday was Tulyagijja’s first day as the Knicks’ assistant director of coaching analytics. Tulyagijja graduated from SU in 2024, serving as an analytics intern and head student manager for the program before being hired full-time.
He served as a hybrid coach and front office member with the Orange last year, working closely with general manager Alex Kline — a former Knicks scout. Tulyagijja was set to return to SU for the 2025-26 season before New York’s last-minute opportunity presented itself.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” Tulyagijja told The Daily Orange during a phone interview about accepting the Knicks’ offer.
Growing up in Thailand, Tulyagijja said all he thought about was the NBA and that it was a goal to work in the association. However, when a couple other NBA teams called asking if he was interested in interviewing with them over the summer, he declined. He said he wanted to stay in Syracuse for another year because he felt this season would be a better representation of what SU’s coaching staff and players have built.
Additionally, Tulyagijja explained he enjoyed his role and felt there were opportunities for him to continue growing. Then, first-year Knicks head coach Mike Brown called SU head coach Adrian Autry in late September, requesting that New York interview Tulyagijja.
Tulyagijja explained he never applied for a role with the Knicks and that he’s not 100% sure how they got his name. He heard his name ended up on their list, but Kline had nothing to do with the process.
The opportunity with the Knicks, in Tulyagijja’s mind, “felt a little different” than the other opportunities NBA teams presented him earlier in the summer.
Once Autry got off the phone with Brown, Tulyagijja said SU’s head coach called him to let him know about New York’s request. However, because the Knicks had two preseason games in Abu Dhabi, Tulyagijja explained he didn’t hear from Brown directly for another week.
Tulyagijja recalls Brown calling him on a Monday earlier in October, and he was flown to meet with team brass for the next two days. A day later, he received the job offer. Throughout the process, Tulyagijja said Autry was very supportive, adding the head coach and Kline advocated that they wanted the best for him.
Kline said he had no comment via text when asked what the process is for replacing Tulyagijja’s role or if there’s anything the Orange have done to this point.
With Kline, Tulyagijja helped develop an algorithm to help SU identify talent. Tulyagijja told The D.O. in January that the algorithm is how Syracuse found freshmen Luke Fennell and Aaron Womack, and that the transfer portal window would be the program’s first time truly implementing it.
The Orange used the algorithm “pretty much” every day once the portal opened, Tulyagijja said, helping the program acquire six transfers: Naithan George, Nate Kingz, William Kyle III, Tyler Betsey, Ibrahim Souare and Bryce Zephir.
“You can tell there was a lot of process and detail that went towards it,” Tulyagijja said of Syracuse’s portal activity. “It wasn’t scrambling to find anyone. We knew who we wanted, and we went out to get them.”
Tulyagijja explained his role with the Knicks isn’t like the hybrid role he had with the Orange, as he’s purely focused on coaching. He added the gig involves mostly strategy, analytics and building upon what New York already has in place.
In addition to working with Brown and the Knicks’ coaching staff, Tulyagijja said he’s also working closely with Billy Lange, who was recently hired as their head of player development after serving as Saint Joseph’s head coach.
Tulyagijja’s responsibilities, he said, are pretty technical and include building infrastructure to automate different pregame and postgame reports for New York’s coaches. At SU last year, he sat on the bench during games, but he expects to be in the locker room during Knicks games.
It’s something he didn’t foresee happening this year, as he signed a lease to commit toward staying with Syracuse for at least another season before the opportunity with the Knicks arose. Because the change was so last-minute, the logistics have been overwhelming — for the next few weeks, Tulyagijja says he’ll be living in a hotel.
While Tulyagijja won’t be on hand to help Syracuse try to snap its four-year March Madness drought, his impact will be felt with the changes he helped implement over the last several years.
Now, all he can do is watch SU from afar as he tries to help the Knicks win their first NBA Championship since 1973.
