Wes Flanigan's staff is set.
The newly hired UALR men's basketball coach has hired Mitch Cole to fill out his three-person coaching staff, Flanigan told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Tuesday.
Cole comes to UALR after spending the past five seasons as a special assistant at Texas A&M. At UALR, Cole will join already announced assistants Kwanza Johnson and Solomon Bozeman.
"We've been fortunate because this job is a little bit better of a job one year after Chris Beard leaves," Flanigan said. "I've got a really good salary pool for our league, and I was able to track down some really good guys. I'm really excited about it."
Flanigan's three assistants are making $30,000 more than what Beard's assistants made last year, according to each coach's letters of appointment. Johnson, who was hired after spending the past two seasons at TCU, will make $110,000. Cole will make $100,000, and Bozeman, who was at Abilene Christian, will make $75,000.
Last year, Flanigan was Beard's highest-paid assistant at $100,000, while Brian Burg made $85,000 and Mark Adams made $70,000. Burg and Adams are both expected to join Beard at Texas Tech.
Flanigan first got to know his latest hire two decades ago while both were at Auburn. Flanigan was a guard for the Tigers in 1995-1996 while Cole was a graduate assistant. Cole then became an assistant at Birmingham Southern College, a post he held for 11 seasons as it transitioned from NAIA to NCAA Division I. He became head coach of the Tigers in 2006 and compiled a 67-35 record in four seasons as it transitioned to Division III, including a 43-9 mark in his last two seasons.
"He's got a good background and a good resume," Flanigan said. "He's been around some very good coaches."
Flanigan said he likes the makeup of his first staff, which includes Johnson, who has spent time at TCU, Georgia, Nevada and Eastern Illinois; Bozeman, the Sun Belt Player of the Year for UALR in 2011; and Cole.
He said one of the traits he sought in candidates was professional ambition.
"Like Beard and his staff, everybody on this staff is going to have an opportunity at some point to be a head coach, or has been a head coach," he said. "That's going to be attractive, to not only kids who are there now, but to kids we're recruiting."
Sports on 05/04/2016