Tennessee basketball: Desmond Oliver tweets great video thanking Vols

After six years as an assistant on Rick Barnes’ staff with Tennessee basketball, Desmond Oliver is moving up the road to take the head coaching job of the ETSU Bucs, a position left vacant by Jason Shay, who stepped down after a year. Oliver was a huge part of UT’s rise under Barnes.

Although the departure left UT with two staff vacancies, one of which Barnes filled by hiring Austin Peay Governors assistant Rod Clark, there is obviously no ill will towards Oliver for leaving. Everybody is appreciative of the work he did with Barnes on Rocky Top.

Well, the feeling is mutual. Oliver tweeted out a video to Big Orange Country on Tuesday thanking Vol Nation for his time with Tennessee basketball. In the video, he narrated a letter to Rocky Top, addressing his time in Knoxville.

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Obviously, Oliver was a great hire for Barnes when he arrived at UT. His SEC experience under Dennis Felton’s staff with the Georgia Bulldogs from 2004 to 2009 along with his experience close to the area there and with the Charlotte 49ers from 2010 to 2015 made him the perfect fit.

Given those connections, he is also the perfect fit for ETSU. There may be some controversy as to why Shay is gone, and that’s something to address at another time, but all Vol fans should root for Oliver to have success in the Tri-Cities region.

The departure of Oliver is also a testament to Barnes’ ability to hire staff members. Oliver joins Kim English, an assistant who also departed recently. He took the head coaching job of the George Mason Patriots. In 2019, Rob Lanier left the Vols to take the head coaching job of the Georgia State Panthers.

Simply put, Barnes has created a pipeline of assistants becoming head coaches while running the Tennessee basketball program. Oliver paid his dues more than any of the other guys, though, and it’s time he got his shot.