It appears Clemson head coach Brad Brownell has filled his coaching vacancies on his staff for the 2019-’20 basketball season.
The Clemson Insider learned on Monday that Philip Pearson will be Clemson’s new Director of Recruiting, replacing longtime Brownell staff member Lucas McKay, who left Clemson in April to join the staff at the University of Missouri-Kansas City as an assistant coach.
Pearson comes to Clemson after coaching one year at Mercer as an assistant coach. He has more than 20 years of coaching experience, including stops at Alabama and Georgia. He also had coaching stints at Murray State and Arkansas-Little Rock.
According to Mercer’s official athletic website, Pearson was the Associate Head Coach for Mark Fox at the University of Georgia. He joined the Bulldogs’ staff in 2009 as an assistant and was elevated to Associate Head Coach in 2015.
Pearson was an assistant at his alma mater, the University of Alabama, from 1998-2009 and was named the Crimson Tide’s interim head coach during the final 13 games of the 2008-09 season, which saw him lead Alabama to a first-round victory over Vanderbilt in the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
During Pearson’s time on the coaching staff at Alabama, the Crimson Tide won more than 200 games, claimed the 2002 SEC Championship, played in five NCAA Tournaments, reached the NCAA “Elite Eight” in 2004 and earned the program’s first-ever No. 1 ranking in 2002.
Before his coaching stint at Alabama, Pearson served on the coaching staff at Murray State University, where he served in the roles of assistant coach, director of basketball operations, and administrative assistant from 1995-98. During his tenure with MSU, the Racers won three Ohio Valley Conference titles and two OVC Tournament crowns.
Pearson got his coaching start as a graduate assistant at Arkansas-Little Rock under the legendary Wimp Sanderson, his coach at Alabama during his first three seasons playing for the Crimson Tide. Among Pearson’s first players at UALR was former NBA standout and head coach Derek Fisher.
—photo from Mercer’s official athletic website
