John Calipari, who won 76.9% of games in 15 seasons with the Kentucky Wildcats, is officially the new head coach of the Arkansas basketball program, with the Hall of Famer joining the Razorbacks ahead of a difficult transition in Fayetteville. We need to build a coaching staff for.
The new job won't be a complete change of scenery for the 65-year-old. He will remain in the SEC with a program that also has a winning tradition. The distance between Lexington, Kentucky, and Fayetteville isn't that far either, and with Calipari potentially keeping his old staff, the distance between the two cities will seem even shorter.
“This is one of the first things I have to do, and the only thing I can say is that I took advice from Pat Nardelli, who is probably watching this,” Calipari said at his inauguration Wednesday. He spoke at a press conference. “I’m in Moon Township, I worked at Pitt, I grew up in Moon Township, and he was one of the guys that supported boys basketball in high school.
“When I was about to accept the job at the University of Massachusetts, he grabbed me and said, 'Let me tell you something, you can't make bad deals with good people because something will happen. But you can never make a good deal with bad people, I don't care what it smells like, I don't care what they look like, I don't care what they do to you, whether it's the staff. Stay away from bad people, even players.”
Sources told HogueBeat that while Calipari will retain several coaches from Kentucky's staff, it's possible, even possible, that he will add two coaches who have close ties to Calipari. That's what it means.
Those names include associate coach Orlando Antigua, assistant Chuck Martin, former Louisville head coach Kenny Payne and Vanderbilt director of on-court player development Brad Calipari (John's son).
“Whatever we do, we're going to have good people here with drive and conviction who know that there are expectations and are not afraid of them,” Calipari said.
Martin has a long history with Calipari, dating back to his time in Memphis from 2006 to 2008. From there, Martin held head coaching positions at Marist (2008-13) and assistant positions at Indiana (2014-17), South Carolina (2017-22) and Oregon State (2022-23). , made several stops around the United States. He did some scouting work with the Oklahoma City Thunder and then worked under Calipari again at Kentucky (2023-24). His primary role with the Wildcats included recruiting, scouting, and developing players.
Antigua served three stints under Calipari. It was once at Memphis (2008-2009) and twice at Kentucky (2009-14, 2021-24). Antigua's specialty is recruiting, having helped lead the Wildcats' No. 1 recruiting class and multiple top-five signings in 2010 and 2011.
Payne played a key role as assistant and associate head coach for the Wildcats from 2010-2020, a period that included 11 highly ranked recruiting classes and Calipari's only national championship (2011-2012). It was
The younger Calipari played under his father at Kentucky from 2016-18 and moved into an assistant role with the Wildcats after the end of his college career (2021-22). After spending one season as director of player development at LIU, Calipari was hired by Vanderbilt for the 2023-24 season. Brad attended his father's introduction to the Razorback faithful Wednesday.
“Brad played for me for three years at the University of Kentucky and graduated and put his name in the portal,” Calipari said. “I mean, he was the son of the first coach to say, 'I'm done.' “Then he went to Detroit under Mike Davis and had a great career and did well. He was at Vanderbilt with Jerry Stackhouse and did a great coaching job.”
Current Razorback assistant coach and recruiting coordinator Ronnie Brewer Jr. is expected to take over from former head coach Eric Musselman's staff. I understood from this tweet.
HawgBeat will be closely monitoring all moves regarding the Arkansas basketball roster and coaching staff. So stay tuned to The Trough Premium Message Board for the latest information.