2 more new staff members joining Clemson basketball. Here are the details
Clemson men’s basketball has hired two new staff members following additional offseason turnover within coach Brad Brownell’s program.
The Tigers announced on Wednesday they’d hired Tyler Murray as their next general manager, and they announced the addition of veteran coach Chris Hollender as an assistant on Thursday to round out Brownell’s 2026-27 staff.
Hollender, who most recently worked at Wichita State and spent the last three years working at a sports analytics company, replaces former assistant Sean Dixon, who left Clemson for a job at Louisville with coach Pat Kelsey.
Murray, most recently at Samford, replaces Lucas McKay, a longtime Brownell associate who drew national praise as Clemson’s director of recruiting and general manager and left the school for a similar job in the SEC at Oklahoma.
Here’s what to know about both hires, plus the additional turnover within Brownell’s program after another successful Clemson basketball season.
Details on assistant coach Chris Hollender
Hollender spent the last three years working for Just Play Sports Solutions in an advisory role that allowed him to travel the country and consult basketball programs on analytics and “interactive teaching solutions.”
But he’s been in the college game for 20-plus years, too.
Hollender has worked at Army (2002-09), his alma mater Evansville (2009-12), Mississippi State (2012-15), UMKC (2015-17) and Missouri (2017-22). He was also briefly at Wichita State before resigning for “personal reasons” before the season and returning to his job at Just Play, which he started after his Mizzou tenure.
“I’m excited to finally be working with Chris, who brings a great deal of experience at the high major level,” Brownell said, adding that he’s “anxious to see how Chris can help us take a deeper dive analytically.”
Hollender will make $325,000 in annual salary at Clemson in 2026-27, according to information provided to The State via public records request.
General manager Tyler Murray’s background
Murray joins Clemson after spending one season at Samford as the program’s associate head coach. He has ties to another recent hire, too.
Before working at Samford and Lipscomb (2019-25), Murray worked at Furman in Greenville with Chad Warner, who Brownell hired last month as an assistant. Murray and Warner coached together at another stop, too.
As general manager, Murray will fill a big role for Clemson, which has landed impact players out of the portal despite operating with less NIL/revenue-sharing money than other top ACC schools. Brownell has openly called it a challenge.
“He’s a really bright guy and an outstanding recruiter who is excited to attack this new challenge as general manager,” Brownell said of Murray.
Brownell also said Murray had worked for “one of the best in the business” in Lennie Acuff, who was Murray’s boss at Lipscomb and Samford.
It’s not a coincidence that as Clemson hires Murray, it’s also reportedly a top landing spot for former Samford all-conference transfer forward Dylan Faulkner.
Murray will make $225,000 at Clemson, according to a public records request. That’s the same annual salary that McKay, the team’s former GM, earned.
New faces for Clemson, Brownell entering 2026
The hirings of Hollender and Murray wrap up a busy off-court month for Brownell, who already had to make three new hires in March.
Clemson hired three new assistants on March 30: Warner (most recently at Minnesota), Chris Harriman (Charleston) and Andre Morgan (Cincinnati).
They were brought in after former Clemson associate head coach Billy Donlon accepted the Eastern Michigan coaching job, longtime assistant Dick Bender retired and special assistant Jeff Reynolds stepped away from basketball.
None of those departures were particularly surprising. Brownell helped Donlon (who’d already been a head coach at two different Division I programs) get the EMU job, and he knew Bender was retiring after this season. Reynolds stepped away from Clemson to deal with personal matters, which Brownell supported.
Seeing Dixon and McKay leave, though, was a less expected second wave of staff movement. Dixon had just received a raise from Clemson before leaving for Louisville, and McKay was a well regarded and well entrenched staffer.
That both coaches left for similar roles at other power conference schools is a nod toward the success of Clemson, which has made three straight NCAA Tournaments and won 20-plus games four seasons in a row.
The Tigers’ 98 wins since the start of the 2022 season were also a program record for a four-year period and second most in the ACC behind Duke (124).
In a similar move, the Blue Devils poached Clemson’s lead strength and conditioning coach Preston Greene last summer.
This story was originally published April 15, 2026 at 5:04 PM.
