Bill Brown, the University of Tennessee’s assistant...

Bill Brown, the University of Tennessee’s assistant basketball coach, resigned Saturday after his arrest in California on charges of possession of cocaine.

Brown, 35, was arrested Friday night at a Sacramento motel after police officers saw a suspected dealer sell cocaine to four people in a car rented by Brown, police said.

The officers went to Brown’s motel room, where they saw paraphernalia for injecting cocaine, police said, adding that a search of the room turned up a small amount of rock cocaine.

Brown was charged with possession of cocaine and of drug paraphernalia. Arraignment was set for July 17.

After being released on $3,000 bond, he returned to Knoxville, Tenn., and called Tennessee basketball Coach Don DeVoe from the airport to resign.

Brown, who was hired by Tennessee in March, had resigned in December as head basketball coach at Cal State Sacramento, citing chest pains that doctors had attributed to stress.