Wednesday was definitely a good news/bad news day for the Tennessee basketball team. The positive update was that the program was able to land the commitment of French standout Clarence Massamba, who comes in from the Monaco organization. It's an exciting get.
On the flip side of things, though, beloved assistant coach Rod Clark is on his way out of town. In a bit of a stunner, the news came in that he was offered a job with Indiana to join Darian DeVries' new staff over in Bloomington. Clark has accepted, meaning he's leaving Knoxville.
He was a tremendous assistant coach for Rick Barnes, no question making a huge impact on the hardwood and out on the recruiting trail. While this is disappointing news for the Vols and Barnes will miss him, the veteran HC also said Tennessee will be just fine:
Rod Clark leaving Tennessee basketball is a big blow for the program
"Rod was great, but you know what, we feel like we've got that position covered," Barnes said. "Everything we do at Tennessee, it's not a one-man recruiting (effort). We've never done that, we've recruited as a staff. We believe in that because we just feel like (getting ready) for situations like this. We want everybody we recruit to know everybody on our staff and criss-cross for that."
DeVries was hired not long ago by Indiana to take over for Mike Woodson. DeVries is making a bit of a splash recruiting standout talent to join him and now he has made a lot of noise by bringing in Clark from Tennessee. Clark enjoyed a four-year stay with Tennessee, including some deep runs in the NCAA Tournament.
This past season, the Vols reached the Elite Eight after a fun ride during the regular season - this team also reached the SEC Tournament title game after knocking off No. 1 Auburn in the semifinals. Barnes will move quickly to find a replacement. There's also no beef with Clark over this call whatsoever. As Barnes noted, however, Tennessee will be quite alright without him.