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Once Jerry Sloan had announced his resignation as coach of the Jazz and wiped the tears from his eyes Thursday, he leaned close to his replacement, Tyrone Corbin, while posing for photos.

"Now they can holler at you," he said jokingly.

The Jazz are hoping, however, that Corbin offers no reason for fans to complain.

Team officials and fellow coaches said the former assistant coach is well-prepared to take over for the legendary Sloan — even if Corbin acknowledged that his sudden promotion represented a "bittersweet moment" in his career because he's going to miss Sloan and longtime lieutenant Phil Johnson.

"In my opinion," Sloan said, "they couldn't have picked a better guy."

The 48-year-old former Jazz player said he had "no idea" until about noon Thursday that the change was coming — one of the first things he did was have lunch with star point guard Deron Williams — and joked that he had yet to even figure out where he would sit on the team bus, now that he's in charge.

It all happened so fast that Corbin had not even signed a contract before his appointment was announced at a news conference. Although that puts the Jazz at a disadvantage in negotiating terms of the deal, the Jazz surely saved considerable time and expense by hiring Corbin rather than searching for a more established coach.

"We will do the best job that we can," Corbin said.

Assistant coach Scott Layden will remain on the coaching staff, with former Jazz guard Jeff Hornacek expected to join it soon as another assistant. The third assistant has yet to be determined.

Meanwhile, the Jazz will continue to play the same style as they had under Sloan, Corbin said, despite reports that Sloan and Williams had clashed over that style and the way Sloan called plays and deployed his personnel.

"Right now, we will pretty much do the same kind of things," Corbin said. "It's too soon to just go in and change everything. We will at some point, I'm sure, tweak some things, but the system is effective. You don't want to go in and scrap the whole thing and start all over — and you can't do that this far into the season, anyway."

Having lost 10 of their past 14 games, the Jazz are 31-23 and have only 28 regular-season games remaining, heading into their game against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at EnergySolutions Arena.

Wearing a dark suit and striped tie while standing on the floor at the team's practice facility, Corbin said his coaching philosophy will be simple — and reminiscent of Sloan's.

"Come in and do your job," he said, "we won't have any problems. Play hard, play right, and you'll play."

Corbin has been an assistant for the Jazz for the past seven seasons, joining them after a short stint as the manager of player development for the New York Knicks under Layden, who was then the Knicks' general manager.

"The thing about him is he's very smart, very thoughtful, and he presents himself well," Layden said. "And he's got toughness. You don't play in the NBA for 16 years without being a tough guy. He had that inner strength to do it every day, so he'll do well."

"If I were given a general manager job tomorrow," Layden added, "I'd hire him immediately. Absolutely. … I think he has great things ahead of him." —

Tyrone Corbin file

Spent nearly seven years as an assistant coach for the Jazz, who hired him in 2004 after Corbin had been manager of player development for the New York Knicks under Scott Layden — the former Knicks general manager who's now an assistant to Corbin.

Played for the Jazz and eight other teams during a 16-year career in the NBA — the San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, Phoenix Suns, Minnesota Timberwolves, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors.

Wore No. 23 and No. 33 throughout his playing career.

Joined the Jazz in a trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves for Thurl Bailey early in the 1991-92 season, and helped them twice reach the NBA Western Conference Finals.

Averaged 9.3 points and 4.8 rebounds while playing 1,065 games in his career.

A native of South Carolina, he played for DePaul University — he finished as the seventh-leading scorer in school history, and graduated with a degree in computer science — before becoming a second-round pick of the San Antonio Spurs in the 1985 NBA Draft.

Married to Dante Corbin, with two children, Tyjha and Tyrell Corbin.