Aki Collins: Off To Memphis

CBSSports.com's Gary Parrish is reporting that Memphis head coach Josh Pastner will hire Marquette assistant coach Aki Collins in the same position with the Tigers. Collins would replace Jack Murphy, who moved on to take the Northern Arizona top job.

This means that Buzz Williams has lost two of his three assistant coaches since the end of the season with Tony Benford taking the North Texas head coaching position. Benford also hired Bart Lundy, Marquette's Director of Basketball Operations, as an assistant at UNT.

The boys over at Paint Touches get the impression that Collins' departure may affect Marquette's recruitment of Dorian Finney-Smith, but as Florida just received a commitment from South Carolina transfer Damontre Harris, Finney-Smith's relationship with Collins might not be that important.

Memphis will join the Big East with the 2013-14 school year, so we'll see Coach Collins on the sidelines with the Tigers either in the Bradley Center or the FedEx Forum sometime during that season. Unless of course, he's taken a lateral move in an effort to bolster his resume for his own head coaching gig...