Ryan Pannone, an assistant coach with the New Orleans Pelicans, has accepted an offer to become an assistant coach under Nate Oats at Alabama, he told ESPN on Saturday.
Pannone comes from a different background than most assistant coaches in the college basketball ranks, previously serving as the head coach of the Pelicans G League affiliate for three seasons. Prior to that, his stops as an assistant, head coach or staff member included Angola, Israel, Germany, China, Korea and Slovakia. He also coached in junior college and high school in the United States.
His G League teams in Birmingham, which is an hour from Tuscaloosa, played a fast-paced, wide-open offense with a heavy dose of 3-point shooting, which in many ways mirrored the style of play that Oats instituted at Alabama over the past few seasons.