LITTLE ROCK -- UALR's new head basketball coach has brought back one of the program's most decorated players as an assistant.
Solomon Bozeman has rejoined the Trojans after two years as an assistant under Joe Golding at Abilene Christian. UALR head coach Wes Flanigan announced Bozeman's hiring on Wednesday, one day after naming Kwanza Johnson (late of TCU) as associate head coach, the spot Flanigan filled on coach Chris Beard's Trojan staff this past season.
"Little Rock is home, and home is special," Bozeman said. "We have a chance to do great things here. I'm excited about being able to coach at my alma mater and helping Wes Flanigan work to get this team back to the NCAA tournament."
The Trojans come off a 30-win season that they won the Sun Belt Conference regular-season and tournament championships and upset Purdue in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Beard left UALR for UNLV after the season, but has since relocated to Texas Tech.
Said Flanigan: "I've always wanted to have a guy that either played in the program or played for me, so Solomon Bozeman fits that bill. He was the Sun Belt player of the year here ... and someone who I think will be great for our guard development. He's a great recruiter. I think at some point he will be a head coach himself."
In Bozeman's second season at Abilene Christian, with a roster that featured eight freshmen, the Wildcats doubled their Southland Conference wins total from the 2014-15 campaign. Bozeman was the primary recruiter on Little Rock Parkview High guard Jaylin Franklin, a second-team all-SLC pick and the league's freshman of the year in 2015-16. Franklin ranked in the league's top 10 in scoring (16.2 points per game) and steals (1.7 per game) while shooting 51.3 percent from the floor.
"Solo did an incredible job here for us," Golding said. "He came in at a tough time in our program due to the transition (to NCAA Division I) and I challenged him, and he did an incredible job in recruiting and really changed our program. He did a great job on the floor as a coach. I'm extremely excited for him and this opportunity to go back home and coach."
As a UALR player, Bozeman made a step-back three-point basket with 1.5 seconds left for a 64-63 win over North Texas in the 2011 Sun Belt Conference title game at then-Summit Arena in Hot Springs. UALR thus qualified for its fourth NCAA tournament, its first since 1990.
Bozeman was named the SBC tournament's most outstanding player after being voted Sun Belt player of the year for the 2010-11 season. He averaged 16.6 points per game and shot a league-best 45.8 percent from three-point range as a senior.
He became just the third player in program history to be voted Sun Belt player of the year, joining Derek Fisher (1995-96) and Hot Springs native Muntrelle Dobbins (1996-97). In addition, he was named Sun Belt student-athlete of the year in May 2011. He later played professionally in the NBA Development League (Austin and Dallas) and overseas in Macedonia, Israel, Ukraine and Qatar.
Eric Bozeman, his father, served as as assistant coach at Ole Miss for seven years, during which the Rebels made four postseason berths and advanced to the Sweet 16 of the 2001 NCAA tournament.
"With his dad being a longtime assistant coach at Ole Miss and being in the profession for a long time, he has the pedigree," said Flanigan, himself a coach's son (Al Flanigan of 2016 Arkansas Class 6A champion Little Rock Parkview). "I'm excited about getting him on board. He's someone who has helped us get to the NCAA tournament once before and hopefully will help us get back there again."
Bozeman earned bachelor's and master's degrees from UALR. He married the former Myra Jernigan last fall. His younger brother, Jeremiah, will be a freshman on the Jackson State men's basketball team in 2016-17.
Bozeman played high school basketball at Magnolia for coach Chris Meseke, a Cutter Morning Star High product now head coach at Malvern. Andre Jones, star player on Malvern's Class 4A runner-up team this season, is an incoming freshman at UALR.
Sports on 04/21/2016