A timeline of Kentucky basketball’s assistant coaches in the Calipari era
The University of Kentucky officially announced Monday morning that longtime John Calipari friend and former assistant Bruiser Flint has replaced Kenny Payne as the newest member of the Wildcats’ men’s basketball coaching staff.
The news was not unexpected. Flint’s name was mentioned in connection with the UK job even before Payne departed Lexington for a spot on the New York Knicks’ coaching staff, and the Philadelphia native will bring a wealth of experience as well as his pre-existing relationship with Calipari, who first hired the 55-year-old Flint at UMass more than 30 years ago.
While there has been relatively little turnover on the UK coaching staff since Calipari came to Lexington in 2009, this will be the sixth different combination of assistant coaches the Hall of Famer has had during his tenure at Kentucky.
Here’s a timeline of Calipari’s assistants:
2009-10
Orlando Antigua, John Robic, Rod Strickland
Calipari came to Kentucky following eight seasons as head coach at Memphis, and the entirety of his first group of assistant coaches at UK had been with him at his previous stop.
Robic was on Calipari’s original staff at UMass — his first head coaching gig — and stayed with him for all eight of his seasons there, before Calipari left college for the NBA’s New Jersey Nets. Robic served as an assistant coach under Bruiser Flint at UMass for three seasons before becoming the head coach at Youngstown State for five years. He rejoined Calipari at Memphis in 2005 and has been with the UK coach ever since.
Antigua spent just one season as an assistant coach on Calipari’s Memphis staff following two seasons on staff at Pittsburgh, his alma mater.
Strickland, a 17-year NBA point guard, held multiple roles in the Memphis program from 2006 to 2009 — including director of basketball operations — before coming to Lexington as a UK assistant coach for Calipari’s first season with the Wildcats.
2010-14
Orlando Antigua, Kenny Payne, John Robic
Strickland was demoted to an administrative role after a DUI arrest in Lexington following Calipari’s first season at Kentucky, leaving a vacancy on the UK coaching staff.
Calipari tapped Payne, who shared a mutual friend in William “World Wide Wes” Wesley, as Strickland’s replacement. Payne, a standout player at the University of Louisville before a decade-long professional playing career, had been an assistant coach at Oregon for five seasons before coming to Kentucky, where he quickly established himself as one of the country’s best recruiters and a respected developer of post players.
This group of assistant coaches stayed together for three Final Fours over four seasons, as well as UK’s lone national championship in the Calipari era.
2014-15
Kenny Payne, John Robic, Barry Rohrssen
Just one day after the Wildcats’ thrilling victory over Michigan to clinch a spot in the 2014 Final Four, it was announced that Antigua had accepted the job as head coach at South Florida. The fan favorite left Kentucky with the reputation as one of the country’s best recruiters, forming a dynamic duo in that regard alongside Payne during his time with the program. He also took Strickland, who had spent the previous four seasons as UK’s special assistant to the head coach, with him as an assistant coach. Antigua wasn’t able to turn the floundering USF program around, amassing a 23-55 record in his two and a half seasons there. He is now an assistant coach at Illinois, while Strickland now oversees the G League’s revamped program that recruits high school players straight to the NBA’s developmental league.
Calipari turned to longtime friend Barry “Slice” Rohrssen, who had previously been a Pittsburgh assistant coach and was well-known for his East Coast recruiting ties. “Kentucky … is a dream come true,” Rohrssen said in his introductory press conference at UK.
2015-17
Tony Barbee, Kenny Payne, John Robic
Rohrssen lasted just one year in Lexington — the Wildcats’ 38-1 season — before heading back to his hometown of New York City to join the new coaching staff at St. John’s led by his childhood friend Chris Mullin. Rohrssen lasted only one season there, too, despite signing a six-year contract, and he has not returned to college coaching.
As Rohrssen’s replacement, Calipari stayed in house with someone he’d known for more than 25 years. Tony Barbee was a freshman on Calipari’s second UMass team and became a star for the Minuteman before joining Calipari’s staff as a graduate assistant in 1995. After Calipari’s departure for the NBA, Barbee worked as an assistant coach under UMass head coach Bruiser Flint for a total of three seasons before rejoining Calipari as an assistant on his first Memphis staff in 2000. Barbee spent six seasons as a Memphis assistant coach, later spending four years as the head coach at UTEP and four seasons as the head coach at Auburn.
Calipari brought Barbee to UK as the special assistant to the head coach in 2014 before elevating him to assistant coach following Rohrssen’s exit.
2016-20
Tony Barbee, Joel Justus, Kenny Payne
While Robic was away from the UK program in the summer of 2016 dealing with a family matter, Calipari tapped Joel Justus to fill the role of Kentucky recruiter. A relatively new NCAA rule allowed each school’s head coach and all three of its assistants to be on the road recruiting at the same time, and Justus proved to be an invaluable asset to the Wildcats’ efforts in that area.
Just before the start of the 2016-17 season, Calipari’s made Justus’ temporary promotion a permanent one. Robic, a longtime friend and associate of the UK head coach, was given the title of special assistant to the head coach, and he remains an integral part of the Wildcats’ program, occupying a prime seat on the Kentucky bench and helping to oversee the team’s game-planning and scouting of opponents.
Justus was a high school coach in North Carolina when he was hired by Calipari as the program’s director of analytics before the 2014-15 season. He spent the 2015-16 season as UK’s special assistant to the head coach. He’s also a former assistant coach at Elon University and is quickly earning the reputation as one of the best recruiters in college basketball.
2020-???
Tony Barbee, Bruiser Flint, Joel Justus
After 10 seasons on the UK bench — the past six as associate head coach — Payne is leaving Lexington for the New York Knicks. His departure will be a major loss for the Wildcats’ program and Calipari, who is once again going with a familiar face to fill a coaching vacancy.
Calipari first hired Flint ahead of his second season as the UMass head coach. That was the same season Barbee started his UMass playing career, and Flint joined a coaching staff that already featured Robic, so he’s well-acquainted with his new colleagues in Lexington.
Flint spent a total of seven seasons as a UMass assistant before becoming the program’s head coach following Calipari’s departure for the NBA in 1996. As previously mentioned, both Robic and Barbee served as assistant coaches under Flint, who lasted five years as UMass head coach. After that, he spent 15 seasons as the head coach at Drexel University, and he was most recently an assistant coach at Indiana for three seasons, helping the Hooisers land several highly touted recruits during that time. Flint, who turned 55 years old last month, brings 33 seasons of Division I coaching experience to Kentucky.
