KNOXVILLE - Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes soon may add filling a staff vacancy to his offseason to-do list.
Assistant coach Chris Ogden, who played for Barnes at Texas and worked for him the past 13 seasons, is in line to join new coach Chris Beard's staff at UNLV, the Times Free Press has confirmed.
Barnes could have a replacement lined up by this weekend, but an official announcement from the Volunteers doesn't appear to be imminent.
One potential target is Tulsa assistant coach Michael Schwartz, who played at Texas for Barnes and spent two stints working for him as a graduate assistant (1999-2001) and video coordinator (2002-04) before moving on to full-time assistant roles at Miami (Fla.) and Fresno State.
Ogden previously was linked to the head-coaching vacancies at Texas-Arlington and Stephen F. Austin.
The Texas native played on Barnes' first Final Four team in 2003 and joined his coach's staff as a student assistant the following season. He then worked his way up from an administrative assistant to a full-time bench coach in 2008 and followed Barnes to Tennessee a year ago.
Beard, most recently the coach at Arkansas-Little Rock, had his five-year contract with the Runnin' Rebels approved by the University of Nevada Board of Regents and was announced as UNLV's new coach Friday.
Like Ogden, the 43-year-old Beard spent most of his coaching career in Texas. He began with stops at Texas, Incarnate Word in San Antonio, Abilene Christian and North Texas, and following a 10-year stint as an assistant at Texas Tech - many of those under Bob Knight - Beard spent one season at Division III McMurry and two at Division II Angelo State.
In his first season with the Vols, Ogden made $225,000, the second-highest salary among Tennessee's assistant coaches.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfree press.com.