Coming off a Sweet 16 run at a university with top-notch facilities and an average attendance that has ranked among the Top 10 in the nation for the better part of a decade, head basketball coach of the Tennessee Volunteers would seem to be a coveted position. However, after Cuonzo Martin left to take a lateral (if not sub-lateral) position with the California Golden Bears, it became clear that it would be the Volunteers who had to sell themselves to prospective coaches and not the other way around.

Late last night, they finally made the sale when former Morehead State and Southern Mississippi head coach Donny Tyndall agreed in principle to become the new rosy-cheeked face of Tennessee basketball. And while Donny Tyndall brings SEC assistant coaching experience to the table and a history of winning at every head coaching stop he’s made along the way, the fact of the matter remains that the Tennessee job will present Tyndall with a slew of new challenges.

Under Cuonzo Martin, the Vols made an unexpected run deep into the NCAA Tournament, coming up a questionable charge call–and let’s be honest… a lackluster possession–short of an Elite Eight run that would have matched their furthest trip into the postseason in school history. However, with seniors Jordan McRae, Jeronne Maymon, Antonio Barton and D’Montre Edwards out of eligibility and junior Jarnell Stokes declaring for the 2014 NBA Draft, the Vols will lose 72% of their scoring and 64% of their rebounding from last season.

Meanwhile, on the recruiting trail, Donnie Tyndall will be tasked with holding onto signees Jordan Cornish, Philip Cofer, C.J. Turman and Larry Austin, a class that currently ranks 49th in the nation per 247Sports. And, to make matters worse, before he was even contacted about the vacancy, the Vols lost a commitment from 7-1 center Kingsley Okoroh less than 36 hours after receiving it in the first place.

Worse still, he’ll have to deal with all this during the late signing period.

Yet all those roster issues pale in comparison to the politicking required by the current nature of the job. Despite delusional expectations of a program that perennially won big, Cuonzo Martin’s tenure could only be deemed a successful one given the history of Tennessee basketball. However, his single biggest failure was that he lacked the charisma of his predecessor.

And while nobody should have the unreasonable expectancy that Donnie Tyndall has the panache of a Bruce Pearl, he’ll undoubtedly have to use charisma to bind a fractured fanbase that can’t seem to come to any sort of agreement over what the loss of Cuonzo Martin actually means to their program.

Tyndall has a reputation as a fan-friendly coach. He was a Morehead State graduate who came back to lead his alma mater to a pair of OVC tourney titles and even led a stunning upset of Louisville in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. Then, at Southern Miss, he led the Golden Eagles to a regular season Conference USA title in the 2013-14 season and made a pair of NIT appearances in two years, having just missed out on the Big Dance in both campaigns.

And, he dances.

However, beyond being comfortable enough in his own skin to do quite possibly the most awkward white guy dance in a nation bursting at the seams with awkward white guy dancers, Donnie Tyndall is going to have to win over fans and donors one room at a time. That all starts this afternoon at the press conference.

And while the idea of anybody “winning” a presser is an unmistakable fallacy, it will be important that Tyndall lays out a clear vision for what’s to be of Tennessee basketball, and he can’t speak in a string of thinly-veiled platitudes.

When he took the job at Southern Miss he mentioned Bill Self and Rick Pitino as major influences on his coaching career, but he won’t have the luxury of simply emulating success at Tennessee. Vol fans would love to win like Kansas or Louisville, but they don’t want to be Kansas or Louisville. They want to do it in their own way.

That was a large part of what made Bruce Pearl so likable. He developed a style of basketball that was a brand in and of itself. Cuonzo Martin even did that to a lesser extent.

Whether it was the three or four quick baskets off inbound sets or the frenetic pace of the offense or the full-court pressure off made buckets, Bruce gave Tennessee something to hang its proverbial hat upon stylistically.

Donnie Tyndall doesn’t have to be Bruce, but he’ll have to develop his own unique brand of basketball, too, and I think he’s equipped to do exactly that.

Tyndall’s offenses have led their respective conferences in AdjO (a stat that measures offensive efficiency) in three of the past four seasons and his defenses have been consistently multiple–a term that we’re allowed to be comfortable with outside the framing of a Derek Dooley and Sal Sunseri defense.

The challenges are obvious, but the Tennessee Volunteers found a coach that seems to fit stylistically with what the fanbase is looking for. Now, however, is when the real work begins.

Donnie Tyndall has to win over the fans, the media and the donors at Tennessee, and then when he’s done with all that he’ll have to win games.

Piece of cake and a sip of Harlem Shake.