The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is expected to hire Virginia Military Institute men's basketball coach Dan Earl for the same position at UTC, which has been confirmed by multiple industry and university sources.
An official announcement is expected Thursday.
Earl compiled a 73-139 record in seven seasons at VMI, essentially building the program from the bottom at one of the hardest places in the country to recruit for basketball.
In each of his five seasons in Lexington, the Keydets lost at least 20 games, but in his final two seasons they were a combined 29-28. They finished fifth in the Southern Conference this past season and made an appearance in the College Basketball Invitational - a national postseason tournament - and Earl was the SoCon coach of the year in 2021.
He started his coaching career as an assistant at Penn State, where he played and was the starting point guard for four seasons, leading the team in assists and earning All-Big Ten second-team recognition in 1996. He was the associate head coach at Navy for four seasons before accepting the job at VMI.
Earl replaces Lamont Paris, who left after five seasons and a 2022 NCAA tournament appearance to become the head coach at South Carolina. The Mocs swept the Socon regular-season and tournament titles this year and returned to the NCAA tourney for the first time since 2016.
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3.