Former Ole Miss men's basketball coach Rod Barnes is no longer a candidate for the assistant coach vacancy on the Tennessee staff.

"I interviewed Rod and liked a lot of things about his candidacy,'' UT coach Bruce Pearl said. "There were just a lot of things I liked about him, but I'm still in the process of looking for the best fit.''

Pearl is replacing Scott Edgar, who left the Vols to take the head coaching position at Southeast Missouri.

Barnes is reportedly a candidate for an assistant coaching position on the Oklahoma basketball staff.

"He (Barnes) is the kind of guy that, if he were interested in us, we'd be interested in him,'' first-year Oklahoma coach Jeff Capel, 31, told the Daily Oklahoman on Friday.

Pearl said he's not surprised Barnes is drawing interest from other high-profile schools.

"I'd love to see Rod get on a good staff; he's a very good coach,'' Pearl said. "Jeff Capel is a good young coach and Rod would be a great asset to him.''

Four other candidates have interviewed for the position: Kent State assistant coach Josh Oppenheimer, former Iowa State assistant Damon Archibald, ABA coach/general manager Bob Sundvold and former Texas-San Antonio coach Tim Carter.

Grad Hired: Pearl hired former Wisconsin-Milwaukee player Mark Pancratz as his new graduate assistant coach.

Pancratz played under Pearl for three years before last season, his senior year, when he finished his career.

"Ever since I got here, Pearl knew I wanted to coach,'' Pancratz told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "After we both ended up losing in the tournament, I called him and let him know I was interested right away.''

Pancratz replaces former graduate assistant Scepter Brownlee, who left UT to take full-time assistant coaching job on Edgar's staff at Southeast Missouri.