La Salle is hiring Radford’s Darris Nichols as its next head men’s basketball coach, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
Nichols has been the coach at Radford for the past four seasons, winning 20 games on two occasions, including this past season. The Highlanders finished tied for second in the Big South Conference in Nichols’ second season at the helm, winning 21 games and advancing to the semifinals of the CBI.
This season, Radford finished 20-13, losing in the semifinals of the Big South tournament to top-seeded High Point.
In four seasons, he went 68-63 overall.
Before taking over at Radford in 2021, Nichols was an assistant coach at Florida, Louisiana Tech, Wofford and Northern Kentucky. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant under Bob Huggins at West Virginia, where he played his college ball 2004-08.
Nichols replaces Fran Dunphy, who announced last month that he was retiring at the end of the season. Dunphy is the winningest coach in Philadelphia Big 5 history, having coached at Penn and Temple before taking over at La Salle in 2022 and going 44-54 in three seasons.
