Tennessee hires Donnie Tyndall

ByJeff Goodman ESPN logo
Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Hours after being turned down by Louisiana Tech's Mike White, Tennessee has hired Southern Miss coach Donnie Tyndall. The school will introduce him in a news conference Tuesday afternoon.

Sources initially told ESPN about the agreement on Monday night.

The deal was for five years at $8 million overall. But they were still negotiating Monday night because Tyndall wanted six years instead of five, a source with direct knowledge on the negotiations told ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz.

Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart reached out to Tyndall, who has spent the past two seasons at Southern Miss, and the two quickly agreed to a preliminary deal.

Tyndall has led Southern Miss to the NIT each of his two seasons at the helm. He was previously the head coach at Morehead State -- where he went to the NCAA tournament twice.

Tyndall was also an assistant at Middle Tennessee State.

He replaces Cuonzo Martin, who left for California last week after three seasons in Knoxville.

The Vols went to the Sweet 16 this past season, but will lose three of their top players -- Jordan McRae, Jarnell Stokes and Jeronne Maymon.

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