Green was forced to resign in 2001 after four seasons at Tennessee, in which he led the Volunteers to an 89-36 record and four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. Tennessee bought out the final four years of Green's contract for $1.1 million.

Before that, he was 72-70 in five seasons at Oregon and took the Ducks to the 1995 NCAA Tournament.

"Retiring at 57 was a good idea," said Green, 61. "But playing golf and boating and fishing got a little old after a while. If I was going to get back into basketball, I wanted to go be with somebody I knew."

Green said he's known Oklahoma coach Kelvin Sampson since Sampson was a player at Pembroke State in North Carolina. Green was a coach at North Carolina-Asheville at the time.

Green replaces Joshua Prock, who was hired as an assistant coach at Kentucky Wesleyan.

Sampson said Green will be the basketball staff's chief liaison to the athletics department administrative staff. He will work with compliance and event management, and his duties will include handling scheduling and travel, Sampson said.

Green has also been an assistant at Kansas. He was an assistant at North Carolina-Asheville before becoming head coach during the school's transition from Division II to Division I.