Alabama basketball assistant Ryan Pannone is set to become the next head coach at Arkansas State, according to multiple reports Friday.
Pannone arrived at Alabama ahead of the 2023-24 season after serving on the New Orleans Pelicans staff as an assistant. Arkansas State will be his first college head coaching job, starting his career as an assistant for various international professional teams. He also had head coaching positions with the Erie BayHawks and Birmingham Squadron of the NBA G Leage before spending the last two seasons as one of Nate Oats’ assistants.
Pannone spent most of his time running Alabama's offense, coaching alongside assistants Bryan Adamas and Preston Murphy this season. In 2023-24, Pannone helped lead an offense that broke a few program scoring records, including scoring 3,335 total points, averaging 90.1 points per game, and burying 413 three-pointers.
Arkansas State is hiring Pannone to replace another former Alabama assistant, Bryan Hodgson. The former Tide staffer departed for the South Florida head coach job this offseason. Pannone is the fifth assistant under Oats to land a head coaching job since Oats took over Alabama.
No. 2 seed Alabama will face No. 1 seed Duke in the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 7:49 CT and the game will be televised on TBS.
