Anthony Ruta has been promoted to an assistant coach by Arkansas coach Eric Musselman after serving three seasons as the program’s director of basketball operations.
He replaces Clay Moser, who announced Wednesday morning he was leaving the staff.
“We are excited and fortunate to have Anthony make this progression on our staff,” Musselman said. “His tireless work ethic and overall basketball knowledge led us to hire him both as director of operations and assistant coach at Nevada and then again here at Arkansas.
"Anthony has proven himself time and again in every facet from scheduling, recruiting, player development and on-court instruction. He has been an integral part of our teams’ successes as well as developing our philosophy and terminology. He has built strong relationships with our players and has done a phenomenal job representing the University of Arkansas and Razorback basketball these past three years.”
Ruta worked as an assistant coach for two seasons under Musselman at Nevada from 2016-18. He helped the Wolf Pack to a 58-13 record, two conference championships and two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the second Sweet 16 in school history.
Ruta served as the director of basketball operations the two seasons prior.
His last season at Nevada saw the Wolf Pack finish No. 20 in the final AP poll and No. 23 in the USA Today coaches poll.
Ruta was an assistant with the Fort Wayne Mad Ants of the NBA Development League before joining Musselman at Nevada. His duties included in-game coaching, practice preparations and his primary responsibility was defensive game planning.
He and Musselman first worked together in 2013-14 when Musselman was an assistant at Arizona State and Ruta was a graduate assistant. In two seasons at his alma mater, Arizona State, he helped the Sun Devils advance to the NCAA Tournament and NIT.
As an undergrad, Ruta was the head student manager for two seasons and assisted with daily operations, which included workouts. He also worked summer camps and organized the team managers.
Ruta received his bachelors degree in English Literature in 2012 and a masters degree in Higher Education in 2014.