Austin Claunch staying for NCAA Tournament before leaving for UTSA
The University of Texas at San Antonio announced on Sunday it had hired Alabama assistant Austin Claunch as its next head basketball coach. Claunch is in his first year with the Crimson Tide, helping the team to a 21-11 record and a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and will remain with Alabama through the postseason, head coach Nate Oats said.
“He’s definitely sticking around with us,” said Oats on a Sunday Zoom call. “This is his first tournament he’s been in. He wants to make a run.”
Claunch joined Oats’ staff last offseason and was set to have a new contract considered by the UA System Board of Trustees compensation committee on Monday, March 18. But he received his second head coaching job after one year as an assistant with the Crimson Tide.
Claunch, 34, arrived at Alabama from Nicholls State, where he spent eight seasons as an assistant and head coach. He was the youngest head coach in Division I men’s basketball from 2018-21. He led the Colonels to back-to-back regular-season championships from 2020-22 and was named the Southland Conference Coach of the Year in 2020-21.
Oats said he spoke with UTSA athletic director Lisa Campos about Claunch on Saturday, and he told his soon-to-be former assistant that this was an opportunity he couldn’t pass up.
“Austin was a great head coach before he got here. I think he’ll do a great job there,” Oats said. “I’m super happy for him. Talked to him a lot over the last 24 hours about this.
“I’m all for taking care of your players, whatever’s best for them. We found out (Noah) Clowney was gonna be a first-round pick, like, you’ve gotta go. We find out Austin can you get a job this good in the American Conference after one year with us, like, it’s a good job to take it. You need to go take it.”
This season at Alabama, Claunch began the season working on the offensive side of the ball, but Oats made a switch before conference play. Claunch and Preston Murphy – along with Oats – split up the defense, while Ryan Pannone and Adam Bauman focused on the offense.
Claunch will be the fourth Alabama assistant coach to land a head coaching job in the last two years. Last season, Charlie Henry (Georgia Southern), Bryan Hodgson (Arkansas State) and Antoine Pettway (Kennesaw State) all earned chances to coach their own programs.
And like Henry and Hodgson last season, Claunch is sticking around for the postseason.
“We need you locked in on trying to make as deep a run as we can in the NCAA Tournament,” Oats said. “So happy for Austin. He’s a great culture guy. He’s a great mind as a head coach, brought a lot to the program. We both learned from each other in the year he was here. I think he’ll do a great job there.”
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