Report: Alabama Basketball Hiring Nicholls State Head Coach as Assistant

After losing three assistant coaches to head coaching jobs, Oats has made the first new addition to his staff.

Michael C. Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

Alabama basketball head coach Nate Oats is hiring Nicholls State head coach Austin Claunch as an assistant, according to a report from Sports Illustrated's Kevin Sweeney.

Claunch has spent the past five seasons at Nicholls State, winning nearly 60 percent of his games and sporting an overall record of 90-61 as head coach, including two Southland Conference regular season championships in 2021 and 2022.

Nicholls State went 51-17 in Southland Conference play in Claunch's tenure, and he was named the Southland Coach of the Year at the end of the 2020-21 season.

The report comes just one day after former Alabama assistant coach Antoine Pettway left to become the head coach at Kennesaw State.

Pettway was the third Alabama assistant to leave for a head coaching position following the end of the 2022-23 season, joining Charlie Henry, now the head coach of Georgia Southern, and Bryan Hodgson, now the head coach of Arkansas State.

At just 33 years old, Claunch was the second-youngest head coach in Division I. Nicholls State was his first and only head coaching job.

Prior to being promoted to head coach at Nicholls, Claunch was an assistant for the Colonels from 2016-18. He served as a graduate assistant at Clemson from 2013-15, and played college basketball at Emory University from 2008-12.

Oats still has two hires left to make in order to complete his staff.

See also:

Alabama Basketball Roster Tracker: 2023 Offseason

Wofford Transfer BJ Mack Names Alabama Basketball in Top 5

Do We Expect More Alabama Basketball Players to Enter the Portal? Just a Minute