UCLA has officially named Murry Bartow as an assistant coach, replacing David Grace who was unexpectedly fired by head coach Steve Alford.

In the press release for the new hire, Alford made his first public statement regarding Grace’s ouster;

“As head coach, I am responsible for evaluating our season and determining what I feel will make us better as we move forward. When Dan Guerrero and I met following the season, we spoke about a number of areas in which we need to get better. I asked Dan if he would be supportive of a personnel change and he indicated he would support what I needed to do to improve the program. From there, I made the decision to go in a different direction with David Grace‘s position. David and I have differing accounts of our conversation, but the bottom line is that I thank him for his impact here and wish him the best moving forward.”

Yawn…

Bartow has spent 18 seasons as a collegiate head coach. He was head coach at East Tennessee State for 12 seasons (2004-15) and at UAB for six years (1997-02).

Most recently, Bartow was an assistant coach at the University of South Florida (USF) during the 2016-17 season and took over as the program’s interim head coach in Jan. 2017.

Bartow’s late father, Gene, served as UCLA’s head coach for two seasons (1975-76 and 1976-77).

More on the hiring HERE.