SMU To Name Tennessee-Chattanooga's Rick Hart New Athletic Director

The Dallas Morning News' Chuck Carlton is reporting that UTC athletic director Rick Hart will be named to the same position at SMU Monday:

SMU calls 2 p.m. Monday news conference. Tennessee-Chattanooga AD Rick Hart to be announced as SteveOrsini's replacement.

— Chuck Carlton (@ChuckCarltonDMN) July 15, 2012

Hart's resume boasts a steady improvement for the UT-C Mocs' APR scores, total student athlete GPA as well as 17 regular season and 22 tournament titles for the school in the Southern Conference. In his six years in Chattanooga, Hart was considered an overwhelming success, according to the Chatanooga Times Free Press:

"I'm extremely proud of Rick and I'm always happy when anybody on my staff goes out and goes on to have excellent and outstanding careers," chancellor Roger Brown said. "But I'm also sad because he's a dear friend and he's such a great part of the Mocs family.

Brown would replace Steve Orsini, fired just a month after making a national splash by hiring Larry Brown as the Mustangs' new mens basketball coach. As the DMN outlined in May, Orsini's undoing was the much-debated coaching search that ended with Brown, as well as the failure of former coach Matt Doherty and June Jones' near-departure for Arizona State.

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