Bubba Smith is leaving Sewanee to be the new men's basketball coach at Lee University. After eight years as Sewanee's head coach, he is moving up from NCAA Division III to Division II.
Lee has called a news conference for this morning, but school president Paul Conn tweeted Thursday evening that Smith had been hired to succeed Tommy Brown.
Sewanee went 20-8 this past season, the Tigers' best record since 1998, and reached the Southern Athletic Association tournament championship game. Smith was the SAA coach of the year in 2013 and 2015.
He previously was 94-46 in five years as head coach at Hampden-Sydney, after three years as an assistant there.
A 1995 graduate of Hendersonville (Tenn.) High School, he was a basketball captain and also played baseball at Furman.