Bruce Pearl Chuck Person
Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl, left, and Auburn legend Chuck Person watch as the Auburn women's team takes on Old Dominion Monday, March 24, 2014, during the second round of the WNIT at the Auburn Arena in Auburn, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)
UAB Athletics Director Mark Ingram has begun to make initial contact with potential candidates to become the school's next basketball coach, including Auburn associate head coach Chuck Person, AL.com has learned.
People familiar with the search say there is mutual interest between UAB and Person.
Ingram is searching for the sixth head coach in UAB history since Stanford made it official Friday that it's hired Jerod Haase away from the Blazers.
Haase has endorsed one of his assistants, associate head coach Rob Ehsan, to succeed him. Ehsan spent the last four years working alongside Haase as the Blazers improved their victory total every season. They produced a Conference USA Tournament title and an NCAA Tournament victory in 2015, along with a C-USA regular-season championship and an NIT trip in 2016.
Since Haase's departure, Ehsan has been named interim head coach for the Blazers.
UAB was the first head coaching job for Haase after he spent 13 years on the staff of Roy Williams with Kansas and North Carolina.
Of the five head coaches in UAB history, only Gene Bartow and Mike Davis arrived on the Southside with head coaching experience. Murry Bartow, Mike Anderson and Haase had been career assistants, although Anderson had spent time as the interim head coach at Arkansas.
Along with Person, a number of other high-profile Power-5 conference assistants have expressed interest in the UAB job. The Blazers will lose only one senior, starting guard Robert Brown, from the team that set a school record for victories and finished 26-7.