Report: TJ Cleveland a candidate for North Alabama job

Arkansas assistant coach TJ Cleveland works with players during practice Thursday, March 15, 2018, at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

— Arkansas assistant coach TJ Cleveland is a possible finalist for the University of North Alabama's head coaching job, according to a report.

Cleveland, 37, is among seven names cited in HoopDirt.com's report Saturday. Cleveland is a native of Birmingham, Ala., about 100 miles from the North Alabama campus in Florence.

North Alabama announced on March 12 it would not renew the contract of men's basketball coach Bobby Champagne, coach of the Lions since 2004, who had a 245-195 record at the school.

North Alabama will become a full-time Division I member in 2018-19 and join the Atlantic Sun Conference.

Cleveland has been working on a series of one-year contracts at Arkansas that pay him $200,814 per year, according to the most recent copy of his employment agreement. Cleveland played at Arkansas from 1998-2002 and has been on the Razorbacks' staff since his uncle, Mike Anderson, was hired as head coach in 2011.

Cleveland has been on Anderson's staffs at Alabama-Birmingham, Missouri and Arkansas in some capacity since the 2002-03 season. Cleveland was reported to be a candidate for the head coach job at UAB in 2012 and at Southeast Missouri State in 2015.

Anderson has had little turnover on his staff in seven seasons at Arkansas, with Cleveland and Melvin Watkins remaining from his original staff. The only change on Anderson's staff came in 2016 when longtime assistant Matt Zimmerman was reassigned to an administrative role and Scotty Thurman was promoted from administration to a full-time assistant job.