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The departure of Rob Lanier to Georgia State was a big loss for Rick Barnes. Lanier had been his right hand man since Barnes’ days in Austin with the Longhorns.
After entertaining taking the UCLA job over the weekend, Barnes ended up staying in Knoxville with the Volunteers. We don’t know what his new deal with Tennessee looks like just yet, but you can probably assume he got the resources needed to replace Lanier with whomever he wanted.
According to 247 Sports and now Jeff Goodman, that replacement will be Kim English.
Tennessee’s Rick Barnes will hire Kim English from Colorado to replace Rob Lanier on his staff, source told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 10, 2019
English was hired as an assistant by Frank Haith at Tulsa in 2015. Haith coached English during his time at Missouri — and Haith spent three seasons (2001-2004) as an assistant under Barnes at Texas. So there’s your roundabout Tennessee connection.
English then spent the last two seasons as an assistant at Colorado, played for Missouri from 2008-2012. He was eventually drafted by the Detroit Pistons in 2012, but a professional playing career never panned out in the NBA. Now 30 years old, English is beginning to climb up the college basketball coaching ladder.