Meet the ‘kind of insane’ breakthrough coach at High Point who got his start at Southern Utah

PORTLAND, Ore. — Before first-year coach Flynn Clayman was a face that millions of Americans saw hunched while over addressing his team in the locker room after High Point’s 83-82 win over fifth-seeded Wisconsin in Thursday’s first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, he was a rising assistant at one of Utah’s six Division I universities.

Now one of the top faces of mid-major basketball as the Panthers prepare to face fourth-seeded Arkansas in Saturday’s second round at the Moda Center (7:45 p.m. MT, TBS).

The energy of the 37-year-old coach has caught the attention of the college basketball fans across the country, prompting even former NBA great and TNT broadcaster Charles Barkley to quip that he hopes to use his unused fourth season of college eligibility for the Panthers because “that guy makes me want to play.

Clayman arrived at High Point, the small town in North Carolina with a private Methodist-affiliated university of the same name, less than three years ago. But his star was rising well before, when he met his wife Katie — now also a High Point assistant women’s basketball coach — during his first job first as a graduate assistant at Southern Utah.

Even then, the Thunderbirds were saying some of the same things his current players said about him — but in the nicest way possible.

“I say he’s kind of insane,” said Rob Martin, the Panthers’ senior point guard who had 23 points and 10 assists with just one turnover in 36 minutes against the Badgers.

“He’s a great coach,” he added, with a laugh. “He brings it each and every day; our guys love him. We work hard. Super proud of him for believing in us, trusting us to go out there and make the plays.”

Insane? Martin quickly walked back the line, adding that it was in jest.

But the cat was out of the bag.

“What Rob said, coach Flynn is insane,” said Cam’Ron Fletcher, a senior transfer from Xavier who spent time at Florida State and Kentucky as a freshman. “I can say that I feel like he will have a lot of success at this level because of that.

“Him and (Arkansas coach John Calipari) got a lot of similarities. I can see coach Flynn having a lot of success being a head basketball coach because of that, him being insane.”

Back in 2017, the former journeyman player at Colorado State and Troy took a job as a graduate assistant at Southern Utah while working on a master’s degree in Cedar City, where former SUU head coach Todd Simon offered him a job as an entry-level special assistant for around $12,000 a year after the two crossed paths on the club circuit.

“I liked his story and determination,” Simon told KSL.com. “Finding hungry young coaches and helping their journey is a passion of mine and he fit that mold.

I could see he was smart, passionate and had a knack and persistence for what it takes to recruit,” added Simon, who is now in his third season at Bowling Green.

SUU was his first full-time gig. Spending time on Simon’s staff as a special assistant, assistant coach and eventually associate head coach from 2017-23 set Clayman on a star-making path.

It’s also where he met his wife Katie, a former dual-sport basketball player and track and field athlete at Oregon who spent four seasons as a Thunderbirds assistant that included a WAC regular-season title and NCAA Tournament trip in 2023.

High Point head coach Flynn Clayman, left, hands his son, Quinn, to his wife Katie Clayman, assistant coach for the High Point women’s basketball team, right, during practice prior to the first round of the NCAA college basketball tournament on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (Photo: Jenny Kane, AP Photo)

Marrying another coach — Katie Clayman is currently an assistant with the High Point women’s team that faced Vanderbilt in an NCAA Tournament first-round game Saturday in Nashville — has been key to his early success, too.

“It’s just been perfect,” he said of their relationship. “I love the game of basketball. Then to find a woman that I love more than the game of basketball, I thought that was impossible. But it happened. It’s probably part because she loves the game, too.”

Clayman went 2-1 as interim head coach in the College Basketball Invitational for the Thunderbirds, which followed a 24-13 campaign that included a 12-6 record int heir first season in the Western Athletic Conference and a wild win over frontrunner Utah Valley in a WAC Tournament semifinal. He also helped bring in stars like Tevian Jones and John Knight III, and guided SUU to the program’s highest ranking in both the NET and KenPom in program history.

In three seasons since former Western Illinois coach Rob Jeter was hired, the Thunderbirds are 32-62 with a 15-39 record in the WAC and most recently the No. 272 NET ranking, which is nearly 200 spots lower than No. 75 High Point.

Clayman, meanwhile, took the associate head coach job at High Point, ran the Panthers’ offense en route to the first NCAA Tournament appearance in 2025, and was promoted to head coach the day after Alan Huss took the associate head coach and coach-in-waiting job at Creighton last April.

Since then, he became the first team from the Big South to win back-to-back conference regular-season titles since Coastal Carolina in 2011 and marched to a 31-4 campaign in his first full season.

And he did it all while being himself.

“I just try to be authentic in who I am,” he said. “I love the game. I want what’s best for these guys.

“When I’m out there getting mad about things, it’s because I want them to win and I want them to have that experience they’ve had.”