Arkansas is close to finalizing a deal for a second on-court assistant, according to Jeff Goodman. Goodman tweeted Friday afternoon that Musselman is due to hire long-time Oklahoma assistant Chris Crutchfield. The news was confirmed more locally by PigTrailNation's Kevin McPherson.
Crutchfield was an an assistant under head coach Lon Kruger for five seasons before being promoted to associate head coach in 2016.
During his time with the Sooners, they have compiled a 160-105 (.604) overall record and have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in six of the past seven seasons, including the 2016 Final Four. In 2016, the Sooners racked up 29 victories on the season, which tied for sixth-most in program history.
Prior to Oklahoma, Crutchfield was an assistant for four seasons at Oral Roberts. He's been coaching since 1995, after graduating from Nebraska-Omaha in 1992. He's coached both in assistant and head coaching roles at TCU, New Mexico State, Tyler JUCO, UTSA and his alma mater.
The Athletic named Crutchfield a 30-under-30 coach to watch and Oklahoma credits him with signing and developing Buddy Hield and Trae Young. Hield was twice named the Big 12 Player of the Year (2015, 2016) and was crowned the national player of the year in 2016 before going on to be drafted as the sixth overall pick in the 2016 NBA Draft. Young, the first five-star player to join the Sooners during the Kruger tenure, was a Consensus All-American, Wooden Award finalist and 2018 Wayman Tisdale Freshman of the Year.
Read all about Musselman's first of three assistant coaching hires Corey Williams.
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