CLEMSON — It has been a busy few weeks for Clemson head basketball coach Brad Brownell, though the transfer portal officially opened earlier this week.

However, Brownell was forced to turn his focus on his coaching staff, after five of his assistants either retired or took jobs elsewhere. The latest came late last week when longtime assistant Lucas McKay left Tigertown for Oklahoma, while Sean Dixon, who just finished his fourth year at Clemson, moved on to coach at Louisville.

Brownell has worked diligently over the past few days to replace both coaches. The Clemson Insider confirmed on Wednesday Brownell has hired Tyler Murray to replace McKay as the team’s new general manager, while longtime SEC coach Chris Hollender is replacing Dixon.

On March 30, Clemson approved the hiring of men’s basketball coaches Chad Warner and Chris Harriman. The school also announced on that same day that Andre Morgan was added to Brownell’s staff.

Those three were hired after Billy Donlon, Dick Bender and Jeff Reynolds left the program. Donlon took the head coaching gig at Eastern Michigan, while Bender and Reynolds both retired.

Murray had just finished his only season at Samford where he served as the Bulldogs’ associate head coach. Prior to his year at Samford, he spent five years at Lipscomb. He was elevated to the associate head coach role prior to the 2024-25 season as the Bisons went 25-10 overall and 14-4 in the ASUN.

Lipscomb won the regular season and conference tournament titles as they made the NCAA Tournament.

Previously, Murray spent two seasons as an assistant coach at Furman University. During the 2018-2019 season, Murray helped guide the Paladins to wins over defending National Champion Villanova, as well as Final Four participant Loyola Chicago.

The Paladins finished that season 25-8 and qualified for the NIT postseason tournament, only the second NIT appearance in program history.

Prior to his time at Furman, Murray spent two seasons as the head coach at NCAA Division II Shorter University.

Murray was an assistant coach at Charleston Southern University.  During the 2014-2015 season, the Bucs captured the Big South Conference regular season title as well as earned an automatic berth into the National Invitation Tournament (NIT), the first in program history.

In six seasons as an assistant at Shorter under Warner, who is now at Clemson, Murray helped guide the Hawks to their most successful run in program history. With Murray serving as recruiting coordinator, Shorter won 120 games, made two national tournament appearances, and captured the program’s first conference championship since 1977.  In that same 2011-2012 season, Shorter finished the season ranked as the No. 1 team in the country with a record of 34-3.

Hollender coached in the SEC for eight seasons, including three at Mississippi State and five at Missouri. He has been out of basketball since 2023, leaving Wichita State after a short stint due to personal reasons.