Rod Clark hired as Indiana assistant coach, leaving Tennessee basketball
Portrait of Mike WilsonMike Wilson
Knoxville News Sentinel
Rod Clark has been hired at Indiana and is leaving Tennessee basketball after four seasons as an assistant coach on Rick Barnes’ staff, his agent, Dan Cutler, of Excel Sports Management confirmed to Knox News.
“He will, I am sure, do a good job at Indiana,” Barnes said at the Big Orange Caravan in Nashville on April 30. “We’ve got it covered because there’s a lot of people that would obviously love to be at the University of Tennessee — in my job. We are excited about the direction that we are going and we’ve got it pretty much filled.”Rod Clark hired as Indiana assistant coach, leaving Tennessee basketball
Portrait of Mike WilsonMike Wilson
Knoxville News Sentinel
Rod Clark has been hired at Indiana and is leaving Tennessee basketball after four seasons as an assistant coach on Rick Barnes’ staff, his agent, Dan Cutler, of Excel Sports Management confirmed to Knox News.
“He will, I am sure, do a good job at Indiana,” Barnes said at the Big Orange Caravan in Nashville on April 30. “We’ve got it covered because there’s a lot of people that would obviously love to be at the University of Tennessee — in my job. We are excited about the direction that we are going and we’ve got it pretty much filled.”
Clark was hired to join Darian DeVries’s initial staff at Indiana. DeVries, who coached at West Virginia last season after six seasons at Drake, was hired in March to replace Mike Woodson.
Clark was with the Vols during some the best seasons in program history, winning an SEC Tournament title in 2022 and an SEC regular-season title in 2024, plus back-to-back Elite Eights for the first time in program history in 2024 and 2025.Rod was great, but you know what?” Barnes said. “We feel we’ve got that position covered. Everything we do at Tennessee, it is not a one-man recruit. We have never done that. We have recruited as a staff. We believe in that because we just feel like situations like this (happen). We want everybody that we recruit to know everybody on our staff. We crisscross for that.
Rod Clark hired as Indiana assistant coach, leaving Tennessee basketball
Portrait of Mike WilsonMike Wilson
Knoxville News Sentinel
Rod Clark has been hired at Indiana and is leaving Tennessee basketball after four seasons as an assistant coach on Rick Barnes’ staff, his agent, Dan Cutler, of Excel Sports Management confirmed to Knox News.
“He will, I am sure, do a good job at Indiana,” Barnes said at the Big Orange Caravan in Nashville on April 30. “We’ve got it covered because there’s a lot of people that would obviously love to be at the University of Tennessee — in my job. We are excited about the direction that we are going and we’ve got it pretty much filled.”
Clark was hired to join Darian DeVries’s initial staff at Indiana. DeVries, who coached at West Virginia last season after six seasons at Drake, was hired in March to replace Mike Woodson.
Clark was with the Vols during some the best seasons in program history, winning an SEC Tournament title in 2022 and an SEC regular-season title in 2024, plus back-to-back Elite Eights for the first time in program history in 2024 and 2025.
“Rod was great, but you know what?” Barnes said. “We feel we’ve got that position covered. Everything we do at Tennessee, it is not a one-man recruit. We have never done that. We have recruited as a staff. We believe in that because we just feel like situations like this (happen). We want everybody that we recruit to know everybody on our staff. We crisscross for that.”
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Rod Clark was instrumental in Vols landing Dalton Knecht, Chaz Lanier
Clark, 32, was instrumental in Tennessee’s recruiting efforts, including in the transfer portal. Notably, he spearheaded UT’s recruitment of Dalton Knecht and Chaz Lanier.
Clark secured an April 2023 visit from Knecht. The 6-foot-6 guard who transferred from Northern Colorado went on to win the SEC player of the year award and had one of the most impressive seasons in Vols basketball history. Knecht was a first-team All-American, the fourth consensus first-teamer in UT history.
