Former Otahk assistant joins ORU staff

Former Southeast Missouri State University assistant women's basketball coach Rick Karr, who recently left the Otahkians to move back to his home state of Oklahoma, has found another job right around the corner from where he lives.

Karr was hired Monday as an assistant women's basketball coach at Oral Roberts University, located in Tulsa, Okla. Karr replaces Eric Ely, who left to take a similar job at Missouri.

Karr was head coach B.J. Smith's top assistant with the Otahkians the past two seasons after Smith took over the Southeast program.

Smith and Karr also coached together at various other schools over the years, including at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M Junior College, which Smith led to a 98-7, three-year record immediately before coming to Southeast.

"Rick and I have been together for a long time. Just about everywhere I've been, he's been with me," Smith said. "But I think this is a good opportunity for him."

Smith said Karr originally planned to get out of coaching when he left Southeast in order to return to home town near Tulsa and be closer to his mother.

"It was kind of a deal where he was going to get out of coaching, just get back home and be closer to his mother, who is getting up there in years," Smith said. "I think he was a little bit burned out."

But then the ORU situation came up.

"The school is about 10 miles from his house," Smith said. "He wasn't sure what he was going to do, but this turned out great for him."

Smith said Southeast is in the process of conducting a search for Karr's replacement.