John Pelphrey hired as Tennessee Tech head coach
Former Arkansas and South Alabama head coach John Pelphrey is back at the helm of a college basketball program. Tennessee Tech announced Saturday that Pelphrey would be the new head coach of the Golden Eagles.
“Our mission when we began this search was to find the best fit, not only for Tennessee Tech University, but also our student-athletes, our fans and our community,” AD Mark Wilson said in a statement. “John Pelphrey is representative of each of those goals and we could not be more thrilled to have him aboard as the 13th head coach in Tennessee Tech men’s basketball history and are excited for what the future holds.”
Pelphrey has spent the last eight seasons as an assistant in the SEC, most recently as one of Avery Johnson‘s assistants at Alabama. He is 149-126 over nine seasons as a head coach, reaching two NCAA Tournaments (one with each program) and one NIT.
“We understand that there’s a lot of work to do, but we’re going to embrace that,” Pelphrey said. “We’re looking forward to developing relationships with the team, everyone at Tennessee Tech and the community of Cookeville.”
A former Kentucky Mr. Basketball, Pelphrey was a star for Rick Pitino and the Wildcats and has his number (#34) hanging in the rafters of Rupp Arena.
credit to Lexington Herald-Leader for the photo
