Darian DeVries is plucking an assistant coach from an SEC program.
Tennessee’s Rod Clark will join the IU basketball staff as an assistant coach, Jon Rothstein is reporting. His agent confirmed the news with Knox News. Indiana has not confirmed the report.
Clark, 32, was hired by Rick Barnes as an assistant coach for the Volunteers in April 2021. Tennessee went 109-36 (.751) during his four years in Knoxville.
Clark has played a role in several prominent recruitments, including Dalton Knecht, who he served as the lead recruiter for and worked closely with throughout the 2023-24 season. Knecht won SEC Player of the Year, claimed the Julius Erving Award and was a consensus First Team All-American. He was then selected No. 17 in the NBA Draft by the Los Angeles Lakers.
He was also the primary recruiter on Chaz Lanier, Tobe Awaka, BJ Edwards, JP Estrella, Kennedy Chandler and Amari Evans and played a role in the development of Shaq Harrison, Tyrese Maxey and Drew Timme.
A native of Kansas City, Mo., Clark spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant coach at Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tenn.
Clark’s first stop as a collegiate coach came in the Horizon League as an assistant coach at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2019-20.
For a two-year span from 2017-19, Clark honed his skills in player development, video breakdown and scouting as the top assistant coach at Sunrise Christian Academy, a national prep basketball powerhouse in Bel Aire, Kan.
Clark also spent time as a coach with the MoKan Elite program on the Nike EYBL circuit. He guided MoKan Elite to the Peach Jam championship in 2019.
As a collegiate player, Clark spent his first two seasons at the junior college level, first at Neosho Community College in Chaunte, Kan., and then Redlands Community College in El Reno, Okla. He concluded his career at Lindsey Wilson College, an NAIA school in Columbia, Ky., from which he received a degree in communications in 2015.
Clark joins an IU staff that includes Drew Adams, Kenny Johnson and Nick Norton as assistant coaches. All four came from other high major programs during the offseason. Former Bradley assistant Mike Bargen is expected to be DeVries’ lead assistant on the bench.
For complete coverage of IU basketball, GO HERE.
The Daily Hoosier –“Where Indiana fans assemble when they’re not at Assembly”
- You can follow us on Twitter: @daily_hoosier
- Find us on Facebook and Instagram
- Seven ways to support completely free IU coverage at no cost to you.
