We came into this offseason prepared to talk about the potential departures of point guard Jordan Bone and power forward Grant Williams to the NBA, but not necessarily about coaches.
Today, Tennessee has lost Rick Barnes’ right hand man to Georgia State. Rob Lanier, who served as the Associate Head Coach under Barnes, has accepted the head coaching job with the Panthers.
Lanier, 50, has been with Barnes since his time at Texas. He joined Barnes in Austin in 1999, before leaving to become the head coach at Siena in 2001. After four years there, Lanier became an assistant at Virginia, then Florida before joining Barnes back at Texas.