According to a report from Adam King, a sports reporter who covers multiple teams across the State of Missouri, Tennessee assistant coach Kim English is one of the leading candidates for the Southeast Missouri State head coaching vacancy. King also reiterated that the search is, “far from over,” in his tweet, which was sent at 8:00ET on Monday evening.
Although the search is far from over, Kim English is one of the leading candidates to be the next SEMO head basketball coach. (Multiple sources tell @kfvssports)
English is a former Mizzou player and currently an assistant at Tennessee. pic.twitter.com/ESAWnLJK2b
— Adam King (@AdamKingKFVS) March 16, 2020
If English were to become the new head coach at Southeast Missouri, his departure would come much earlier than Vol Fans would have hoped, as the former Missouri Basketball star just joined Rick Barnes’ staff last season, following Rob Lanier’s departure from Tennessee for the head coaching position at Georgia State.
English’s reputation in the College Basketball world is a great one, and he is seen as one of the nation’s top recruiters. In fact, he is thought to have one of the brightest futures in the nation as a head coach, and has already been instrumental in putting together Tennessee’s 2021 class.
Southeast Missouri State terminated head coach Rick Ray’s contract after an abysmal 51-104 record. Ray failed to be anywhere close to competitive in their conference, finishing with a 27-59 record in the Ohio Valley. The program’s Director of Athletics, Brady Barke, officially fired Ray just a couple of weeks ago on the 3rd of March, and he claimed that he wants to have a new coach in place by the end of the month. While that goal may be slowed down due to the recent developments of the Coronavirus pandemic, Vol Fans can likely count on having definitive word on whether English will be leaving for the vacancy by then.
Prior to becoming an assistant coach at Tennessee, he was an assistant coach at Colorado for two seasons and an assistant at Tulsa for two seasons. Before entering the world of coaching, English was a star basketball player for the University of Missouri and was selected in the 2nd round of the 2012 NBA Draft by the Detroit Pistons. The shooting guard played for the Pistons for two seasons, played in the G-League some, and even played overseas during his career. There is no doubt that the 32-year-old has a bright future in front of him, but now it appears that some opportunities might be arriving for him earlier than we expected.
