Donnie Tyndall Accepts Vols Job

ESPN and CBS are reporting that Donnie Tyndall will be the next head basketball coach at the University of Tennessee.

Tyndall, 43 years of age, has the resume as an up-and-comer, with his primary claim to fame being a remarkable turnaround of his alma mater, Morehead State. After spending time as an assistant at LSU, Idaho, and MTSU, he took over a 4-23 Eagles squad and took them to an NCAA tournament in his third year as a head coach, getting his first tournament win in his fifth season, as a 13-seed against Rick Pitino's fourth-seeded Louisville Cardinals.

After six seasons at Morehead State, Tyndall left for Hattiesburg, Mississippi, where he succeeded Larry Eustachy at Southern Mississippi. Despite inheriting a tournament team, Tyndall managed just two NIT Quarterfinals with the Golden Eagles, losing in double-overtime to Memphis in the conference finals in his first season and falling 88-70 in the semi-finals to Michael White's Louisiana Tech squad in his second.

This makes Tyndall the second consecutive Tennessee hire who lost his most recent matchup with the candidate everyone thought would be the choice 24 hours previously, although unlike Butch Jones against Charlie Strong, Tyndall had an even record against White this season, winning the regular season matchup 80-71 at home.

In all, Tyndall spent six seasons at Morehead State, winning no Ohio Valley regular season conference championships but finishing in the top four five times and winning two tournament bids. In his two years at Southern Mississippi, he posted one second-place Conference USA finish and one four-way tie for first.

The formal announcement is scheduled for Tuesday, and we'll have more on Tyndall as the week progresses. What do you think of the new hire?