Chattanooga Mocs men’s basketball coach Lamont Paris announced the first members of his staff Monday. Tanner Bronson and Walter Offutt join the first-year head coach in Gig City.
"I'm really excited about both of these guys,” Paris shared. “It's great to get two good coaches ready to hit the ground running and be able to sprint. It's been a one-man band for a long time, so to get some accompaniment is much welcome."
Bronson is a Wisconsin alum playing from 2005-08 prior to Paris’ arrival in Madison.
He moved from the playing floor to the bench first in the NBA D-League as an assistant with the Sioux Falls Skyforce for two-plus seasons. He returned to the college game in 2011 as graduate manager for Rick Majerus at St. Louis.
That began a five-year stretch which coincided with the best run in Billiken history. The last four of those years (July 2012-2016) was as an assistant coach. SLU went 103-64 over the five seasons with two Atlantic 10 titles and three NCAA Tournament trips along the way. Bronson joined Marvin Menzies at UNLV as program assistant in 2016-17.
Offutt spent last season as director of basketball operations at Ball State. He was an All-Mid-American Conference performer at Ohio earning third team honors as well Academic All-MAC in 2013.
His 2012 Bobcat squad reached the NCAA Sweet 16 winning 29 games playing for John Groce. Offutt earned NCAA Midwest Region All-Tournament including a career-best 26-point performance against North Carolina in the Sweet 16 matchup.
Following graduation, he spent a year as a varsity assistant at Indianapolis Cathedral High School before rejoining Groce as a graduate manager at Illinois. He spent the 2015 and 2016 seasons in Champaign before moving to Muncie joining James Whitford in June 2016.
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