Alabama basketball heading in direction of hiring Austin Claunch | Source
Alabama basketball is close to hiring its first assistant.
Nicholls coach Austin Claunch is the name, and a program source told The Tuscaloosa News on Saturday afternoon it's "headed that way" regarding the Crimson Tide hiring Claunch.
Alabama lost all three assistants to head coaching jobs with Charlie Henry going to Georgia Southern, Bryan Hodgson going to Arkansas State and Antoine Pettway leaving for Kennesaw State.
The Crimson Tide is fresh off a trip to the Sweet 16. Alabama earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history after winning the SEC regular-season championship and the SEC Tournament.
Claunch, 33, has been the head coach of Nicholls since March 29, 2018, and he has been on the staff at Nicholls since June 2016. When he was an assistant, Claunch worked with the guards. He would likely fill the role of Pettway on the staff.
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He has a 90-61 record over five seasons with the Colonels and only had one losing season: his first in 2018-19.
Claunch led Nicholls to Southland regular-season conference championships in 2020-21 and 2021-22 as well.
Prior to joining the Colonels, Claunch served as Clemson's assistant video services director. Before that, he worked as a graduate manager for Clemson from 2013-15. He got his start in the profession when he worked as an assistant coach at George Mason from 2012-13.
Claunch is a Houston native who attended Emory University and played basketball for the Division III school from 2008-12. He started for four years and was a captain for two.
He got his bachelor's degree in political science with a minor in religion. Then he received his master's degree from Clemson in 2015 in human resource development.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball heading in direction of hiring Austin Claunch | Source
