Russ Pennell has been hired as an assistant coach for the Arizona men’s basketball team, UA head coach Lute Olson announced this morning.

The 47-year-old returns to college basketball after spending the last two seasons running the Arizona Premier Basketball League in the Phoenix area. He told his AAU team last week that he would be taking a position on the Wildcat staff.

Pennell was an ASU assistant coach from 1998-2006 and also provided color commentary for the ASU radio network during the past season.

“”I’m just really excited to be working with a Hall-of-Fame coach in Lute Olson and a program with such a storied history,”” Pennell said in a press release. “”I’m looking forward to getting the program back to the level that the fans in Tucson and throughout the state have come to expect. This is a wonderful opportunity for me and my family.””

Pennell replaces Kevin O’Neill, who served as interim head coach last season when Olson took a season-long leave of absence.

There is one more coaching vacancy to be filled after it was announced last week that Miles Simon’s contract would not be extended for a fourth year.

Read more about Pennell in tomorrow’s Daily Wildcat.