The Penn State men's basketball team announced Saturday that it hired former Florida assistant coach Lewis Preston to the same position with the Nittany Lions.

"We are very excited to welcome Lewis to Penn State and our coaching staff," Penn State head coach Ed DeChellis said in a press release. "He is an outstanding young coach and a very highly regarded national recruiter with a terrific background in basketball as both a coach and a player."

Preston, who will start at his new position on June 4 according to the press release, coached the last two years at Florida. In his first season there, the Gators won their second straight national championship. Prior to coaching at Florida, Preston coached at Notre Dame for six seasons.

The addition of Preston comes after Penn State lost former assistant coach Hilliary Scott, who accepted the head coaching position at Lynchburg College.

"I'm really excited about the opportunity to come and work with coach DeChellis and his staff at Penn State," Preston said in the press release. "I look forward to the challenge and the opportunity to help make the Nittany Lions a force to reckon with in the Big Ten."

Preston has worked with five first-round NBA draft picks and his eight years at Florida and Notre Dame all ended with a postseason appearance. Before coaching with the Fighting Irish, Preston was an assistant coach at Coastal Carolina.

Preston played college basketball at the Virginia Military Institute (VMI), where he amassed 1,146 career points, which ranks 19th all-time at VMI. He then played four years of professional basketball in Europe before moving on to a coaching career.