SEC Basketball

LSU's top assistant coach resigns

LSU assistant coach Greg Heiar, center, coaches from the sidelines during the second half of the first round men's college basketball game against Yale in the NCAA Tournament, in Jacksonville, Fla. Thursday, March 21, 2019. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton)

— LSU associate head basketball coach Greg Heiar is leaving the staff, he announced on social media Thursday.

Heiar left Wichita State to join LSU as an assistant when current Tigers head coach Will Wade took over in 2017. Heiar's promotion to associate head coach came before last season.

LSU has not announced the staff change, which was first reported by 247sports.com, but proposals to increase salaries for two other staff members — assistant Bill Armstrong and support staff member Kevin Nickelberry — have been added to the agenda for the next LSU Board of Supervisor's meeting.

Heiar, 44, has not discussed why he left. At LSU, he took leading roles in recruiting and developing guards.

“Thank You LSU!,” Heiar wrote in his announcement on Twitter, adding that he was blessed to have coached and “been around a lot of tremendous players that were great people.”

Heiar's tenure at LSU has coincided with LSU's decision in 2019 to suspend Wade for the final regular season game and postseason after he initially declined to meet with top administrators about a report that quoted him on an FBI wiretap transcript discussing potentially improper recruiting tactics.

With Heiar remaining on staff, LSU clinched the SEC regular season championship and advanced past the first two rounds of the 2019 NCAA tournament. Wade, who has not admitted wrongdoing, was subsequently reinstated.

LSU also was in the running for an NCAA tournament bid in 2020 before the season was cancelled because of the new coronavirus pandemic.