Tennessee basketball assistant coach Rod Clark suspended two games for compliance issue
Rod Clark is serving a two-game suspension for Tennessee basketball as the Vols assistant coach and UT are working collaboratively with the NCAA to address a violation, UT announced Monday.
"Coach Clark has acknowledged his error in judgment and accepted full responsibility," UT said in a statement. "We appreciate his cooperation throughout the process."
The third-year assistant coach will not be on the bench for the Volunteers' season opener against Tennessee Tech on Monday (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) at Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center. He also will not travel with the Vols to Wisconsin for their Friday game against the Badgers.
Clark has not been charged with any prior NCAA violations or compliance issues during his Tennessee tenure or his stints at Austin Peay or Illinois-Chicago, a source with direct knowledge told Knox News.
UT cannot offer further comments or details on the specific violation due to NCAA bylaws.
Clark was hired before the 2021-22 season when UT had two vacancies on the staff following Kim English being hired as the George Mason head coach and Desmond Oliver being hired as the ETSU coach.
English is now the head coach at Providence and Oliver is an assistant at USF. Vols associate head coach Justin Gainey was hired to fill the second vacancy.
Clark was an assistant coach for one season at Austin Peay in the 2020-21 season. Prior to that, he was at Illinois-Chicago for one season.
Clark, who is from Kansas City, Missouri, coached at Sunrise Christian Academy in Wichita, Kansas, from 2017 to 2019.
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He played his final two seasons in college at Lindsey Wilson College in Columbia, Kentucky. He played his first two seasons at Neosho Community College in Kansas and Redlands Community College in Oklahoma, respectively.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on Twitter @ByMikeWilson. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Tennessee basketball's Rod Clark suspended 2 games on compliance issue
