After one year as one of Memphis' assistant coaches, Sam Mitchell is no longer with the program. Memphis coach Penny Hardaway brought Mitchell on due to his NBA experience as a player and coach and his relationship with five-star class of 2020 guard Jalen Green after coaching him on the Adidas circuit with EBO.

"Sam is not still on our staff right now," Hardaway confirmed in his Tuesday afternoon media availability. "Sam decided to go in another direction. He's always going to be an older brother and I'm always going to talk to him."

Before coming to Memphis, Mitchell was the coach on the U.S. Virgin Islands national team, and he had multiple NBA stops before that. Mitchell coached for the Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, New Jersey Nets and Minnesota Timberwolves, and he won the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 2007 with the Raptors.

Mitchell played college basketball at Mercer from 1981-1985, and he was picked in the third round of the 1985 NBA Draft by the Houston Rockets. Although Mitchell was never an all-star in the NBA, he played from 1985-2002.

With an open assistant position on the Memphis staff now open, one name that has emerged in recent weeks is current Los Angeles Lakers coach Miles Simon. However, things with Simon are far from done. For now, the next move is for the Memphis staff to get on the same page.

"That's just for me and Mike [Miller] and Tony [Madlock] to sit down and talk about it, what can compliment us as a group and not just a name," Hardaway said on Tuesday. "I would love to do it before June 3rd. That's the first day of summer school."