Fresno State basketball zeroing in on Alabama assistant Ryan Pannone as next head coach
After just one season with the Alabama Crimson Tide basketball program, assistant coach Ryan Pannone appears as if he may be on the move again as he has been tabbed as a finalist for the Fresno State head coaching vacancy, according to Mike Rodak of 247Sports. With the March Madness tournament still going on and the team preparing for the Final Four, I doubt we hear an announcement from either side soon but it appears as if he is their top target.
Pannone spent the first part of his career bouncing around overseas as an assistant before getting his first big break with the New Orleans Pelicans. After less than a year there, Pannone took one look at Tuscaloosa and saw all of the opportunities that [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] assistants were getting and decided to follow that path.
Despite probably not being the most talented roster Alabama has ever had, it is their first-ever team to make a Final Four appearance. A large part of that success can be attributed to Oats as well as his entire coaching staff.
At only 39 years of age, Pannone is a hot young name in the coaching world and is the exact type of energy that is needed in this new name, image, likeness and transfer portal era. Especially when reviving a program like Fresno State that finished 12-21 a season ago.
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New Alabama basketball assistants agree to two-year deals each
[autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] got his first taste of Nick Saban’s life this off-season as he had all three of his assistant coaches from the 2022-2023 season poached by different programs. Now, not only will he have to replace probably the best player in program history, Brandon Miller, but he has had to entirely revamp his coaching staff.
All three of the former assistants accepted head coaching positions with other programs. Antoine Pettway accepted the head coaching position with Kennesaw State, Charlie Henry departed for Georgia Southern and Bryan Hodgson left for Arkansas State.
Two of those three positions have been filled by Ryan Pannone and Austin Claunch. There is still a third opening, but Oats doesn’t appear to be in any rush to fill the position. Alabama landed Pannone from the New Orleans Pelicans and Claunch from Nicholls State, where he served as the head coach.
Both Claunch and Pannone met with the Alabama athletic department Tuesday to discuss their new contracts and salaries. Pannone signed a two-year deal worth $330,000 annually and Claunch signed for two years worth $275,000 annually.
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Nate Oats doing his due diligence on Alabama basketball’s third assistant.
The Alabama basketball program just completed its most successful season in program history, and the bill has hit hard. The Tide were the champions of the SEC in the regular season as well as the post-season tournament and went on to become the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 March Madness tournament. The Tide was led by Nate Oats, who is obviously a great coach, but also Brandon Miller and three great assistant coaches.
As a top 10 player in the country, it was always likely that Brandon Miller was going to be a one-and-done player, so the departure didn’t shock anyone, but it will still hurt. He was the SEC Player of the Year, SEC Rookie of the Year, and a consensus second-team All-American. Miller is now on his way to being a top-three pick in the 2023 NBA draft.
The unsung heroes of the season were Alabama’s three assistants who were massive pieces of the puzzle. All three were excellent on the recruiting trail and very good situationally, so much so that they were each hired for head coaching jobs after the season. Bryan Hodgson went to Arkansas State, Charlie Henry to Georgia Southern, and Antoine Pettway to Kennesaw State.
Since then, Nate Oats has filled two of those three vacancies. The first hire was Austin Claunch who is only 33 years old but led Nicholls to back-to-back Southland regular season titles in 2021 and 2022 and was named the conference’s coach of the year as well in ’21. They also added Ryan Pannone, previously with the New Orleans Pelicans.
As of right now, Nate Oats is still taking his time on the third hire. He knows how important it is to have good assistants on your staff and there is still plenty of time until the season starts. I think the first two hires were absolute home runs, so the Tide are sitting pretty well as is.
Nate Oats said Alabama is not in a rush to hire a third assistant. “Still sorting through things”
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Erie BayHawks head coach Ryan Pannone believes the sky is the limit for former UCF forward Aubrey Dawkins.
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An injury forced Aubrey Dawkins to miss the first six games of the 2019-20 NBA G League season but once he was healthy, his talent was on full display with the Erie BayHawks.
Dawkins, the son of former Duke great Johnny Dawkins, went undrafted in the 2019 NBA Draft after playing one season for his father at UCF following a transfer from Michigan. Dawkins helped lead the Knights to the NCAA Tournament and a near-upset of Duke in the second round.
Dawkins averaged a career-high 15.6 points, five rebounds, 1.4 assists and one steal in 33 games with the Knights during the 2018-19 season. He erupted for 32 points against the Blue Devils and was mere inches from tipping in the game-winning basket against Zion Williamson & Co.
After his run with the Knights, Dawkins played for the New Orleans Pelicans in the Las Vegas Summer League, averaging six points in five games played. He eventually signed an Exhibit 10 contract with the Pelicans ahead of the start of the season and joined the BayHawks.
Dawkins established himself at UCF as an athletic player that could shoot and defend. He converted on 40.3% of his attempts from 3-point range at UCF and was among the best in the country shooting off of screens. In his first season in the G League, Dawkins averaged 9.3 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.1 assists in 37 games played with the BayHawks while he shot 35.7% from 3-point range.
While Dawkins was a known shooter, BayHawks head coach Ryan Pannone believes it was his defense that improved throughout the year once he was fully healthy.
“I think defensively he got better,” Pannone told Rookie Wire. “I think that was a big thing with him. He got better defensively. Obviously, coming out of college, he was an athletic shooter which he showed this year. He had an injury early on and that kind of prohibited him, he missed [some time] due to it and then coming back was a process. Once he was fully healthy, you can just see Aubrey’s talent.”
Dawkins had his best stretch of the season toward the end of January and into February. He recorded a career-high 22 points on Jan. 30 against the Greensboro Swarm after converting on 6-of-7 from 3-point range. Dawkins averaged 10.4 points in 10 games during the month of February, his best month of the season.
Dawkins has often been lauded as an unselfish player and that carried over to the next level. He has often worked to be a facilitator on the floor with the BayHawks and drew praise from his head coach in that area this season.
“The G League can oftentimes be a struggle for guys that don’t create their own shot as well off of the bounce,” Pannone said. “Aubrey is a guy that feeds off of assists and feeds off of other players and at times those guys can become frustrated and turn selfish themselves. He is someone with a high character that will never play selfish regardless of what’s going on and I think he has a chance to really break out next year as he’s fully healthy and has a year under his belt in the G League.”
Dawkins, along with the rest of the basketball world, has been sidelined since March 11 after the NBA suspended the regular season until further notice due to the coronavirus pandemic. While the NBA is hopeful to resume play in the coming months, the G League season is expected to be canceled.
With his first professional season in the books, Dawkins has momentum heading into his second season and appears to have a bright future ahead on the court.
From reading the scouting reports to buying into the system, the Pelicans rookie was fully committed to his stint in the G League.
As the 17th overall pick, Nickeil Alexander-Walker entered the 2019-20 season as one of three players the New Orleans Pelicans selected in the first round and was, of course, overshadowed by No. 1 overall pick Zion Williamson.
Williamson was labeled as a once-in-a-generation talent and viewed as the perfect player to help usher in a new era of basketball in New Orleans after the departure of franchise mainstay Anthony Davis. A knee injury suffered during the preseason saw his debut delayed until January, which opened the door for Alexander-Walker and Jaxson Hayes, the eighth overall pick.
Alexander-Walker was viewed by most as a player that could potentially step in and immediately contribute with the Pelicans. He was highly touted coming into the draft for his ability to shoot and score after averaging 16.2 points as a sophomore at Virginia Tech while converting on 37.4% of his shots from 3-point range. Alexander-Walker also had a great showing with the Pelicans in the Las Vegas Summer League, finishing third in scoring among all players.
The 6-foot-5 guard started off the year as a key player in the rotation and had shown flashes in a couple of games. He recorded a career-high 27 points on Nov. 16 against the Miami Heat and followed that performance up by scoring 19 points against the Golden State Warriors.
Shortly after that, Alexander-Walker received a few DNP-CDs and saw inconsistent playing time over the course of the next few months. By the end of January, Alexander-Walker only saw the floor in mop-up duty and had completely fallen out of the rotation.
The decision was eventually made in February to send Alexander-Walker to play with the Erie BayHawks, the G League affiliate of the Pelicans. Instead of viewing the assignment as a demotion, Alexander-Walker embraced the opportunity and fully committed to playing with the BayHawks.
“I think a lot of times with the G League, guys come down there and it’s alright, ‘I’m going to shoot 40 shots,'” BayHawks head coach Ryan Pannone told Rookie Wire. “He didn’t have that mentality and instead viewed it as how can I help this team win, which we desperately needed. How can I be a good teammate? How can I make an impact? How can I have leadership and also how can I improve on my own game?
He was amazing to coach. I think he is going to be a very, very good player in the NBA because he is talented and his work ethic is incredible but he also has a care factor. He cares. He cares about the scouting report. He cares about getting things right. He cares about being coachable. He cares about being held accountable. He wants to be held accountable.
Alexander-Walker made two appearances with the BayHawks before re-joining the Pelicans on March 1. He scored 23 points, four rebounds and four assists in his debut, leading the BayHawks to a win over the Long Island Nets. Alexander-Walker tallied 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists in his second game with the BayHawks.
The brief stint in the G League allowed the rookie to stay fresh on the court and learn how to play through mistakes. He committed 11 turnovers in his two games with Erie but it also gave him an opportunity to be coached and improve his game as a whole.
“The Pelicans don’t want guys to just come down to the G League and shoot it 40 times a game and get up as many shots as possible,” Pannone said. “They want guys to come down there and actually improve and get better. The big message with him was to hold him accountable, coach him hard and get him to play consistently offensively and have fun. Fortunately, Nickeil, number one, his work ethic is amazing and two, he is a phenomenal kid.
He came down there and we had a seven-hour bus ride and he is on the bus, playing video games, choppin’ it up with the guys, having a good time. He knew the scouting report of every player. He knew the offensive plan and the defensive plan. You can tell he was studying all of the personnel reports we sent out to all of the players before we met up as a team.
While most of the scouting behind a potential prospect occurs on the court, teams also look for high-character players with a commitment to working hard and improving on the court.
With Alexander-Walker, it is certainly clear he checks all of the boxes as a first-round pick in the NBA given his skill set on the floor and willingness to learn.
The down period across sports can serve as a reprieve for the spouses of players and coaches that are tasked with raising children.
While fans around the globe attempt to fill the void live sporting events and stay connected to the game they love, a portion of the population will find some relief during this unprecedented time.
Professional sports leagues worldwide have been canceled or postponed indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic. There has been no indication when sporting events can potentially resume and the NBA is reportedly preparing to return no sooner than the middle of June.
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he will extend social distancing guidelines for an additional 30 days in the United States, which limits large gatherings, among other things. Trump is hopeful the country can be on its way to recovery by June 1.
With sports at a standstill, players, coaches and staff members alike are afforded the opportunity to spend some time at home with loves ones during the hiatus. The time away from the game can be a much-needed reprieve for spouses tasked with running households during the season. The life of a spouse has often been glamorized over the years but the side some don’t see is the behind-the-scenes chores and activities they are faced with on a daily basis.
Players and coaches are often on the road for upward of nine months out of the year due to travel, games and practices during the season, leaving spouses alone for a majority of that time. Players have said in the past that they are often pre-occupied with games or practices even when they are at home.
“I think a lot of coaches are figuring out, basically, how strong and how tough their spouses are,” said Ryan Pannone, the head coach of the Erie BayHawks, the G League affiliate of the New Orleans Pelicans. “They are oftentimes handling everything with the kids and the day-to-day while working also.
Now that you’re home, and you have the downtime, you’re trying to step up and step in and take some of that off of their back. You begin to wonder, ‘How do they get everything done in their day?’ We have two kids and my wife works. She was staying up all night with our newborn and waking up at 5 a.m. with our son. I recently took over waking up at 5 a.m. with my son and was thinking, ‘Oh, man. This is rough.’
Players understand the life of being an athlete can be a sacrifice to spend so much time away from their families. They also know the window of being a professional athlete is very small and they must take advantage of their time in order to financially provide for their families.
Sports can oftentimes create a diversion from real-world issues but the coronavirus outbreak has proven that live events can be detrimental to the public health, and thus have been put on hold for the time being. As a result, sports have taken a backseat to the problems at hand during these strange times.
“You’re just more concerned about the players’ health and the fans than anything,” Pannone said. “We’re playing basketball, we’re coaching basketball, it’s a reality check of how important it is for what we’re doing as opposed to first responders, nurses, doctors, people working in the hospitals, people that are on the front lines of this that are putting their lives at risk. It’s kind of a little bit of a dose of reality.”
The downtime from sports will likely serve as an enlightening experience for players and coaches to catch a glimpse of what spouses are tasked with each day. With many around the country self-isolating at home, the workload for parents, in general, will certainly only increase.
