John Calipari is officially the new head coach of the Arkansas basketball program after winning 76.9% of his games in 15 seasons for the Kentucky Wildcats, and now the Hall of Famer must build a coaching staff for the Razorbacks ahead of a challenging transition in Fayetteville.
The new job won't be a complete change of scenery for the 65 year old, who will remain in the SEC at a program that also has a winning tradition. Lexington, Kentucky, to Fayetteville is not too far, either, and the distance between the two cities will seem even shorter with the possibility that Calipari will retain members of his previous staff.
"That’s one of the first things I’ve got to get done and the only thing I can tell you, I had advice from Pat Nardelli who is probably watching this," Calipari said on Wednesday in his introductory press conference. "I was in Moon Township and I was working at Pitt, I grew up in Moon Township and he was one of the people who supported men’s basketball in high school.
"I was taking the UMass job and he grabbed me, he said, ‘Let me tell you something kid, you can have a bad deal with good people because stuff happens, but you can never have a good deal with bad people. I don’t care what it smells like, what they look like, what they can bring to you, stay away from bad people whether it’s staff or players.’"
Sources have told HawgBeat that it is possible and even likely that Calipari retains a couple coaches from his Kentucky staff, while also adding two coaches that he has close ties to.
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’ll have good people who are driven and wired knowing that there is an expectation here and not being afraid of it," Calipari said.
Martin has a long history with Calipari dating back to his time on the Memphis staff from 2006-2008. Martin made a few stops across the country from there, including a head coaching role at Marist (2008-13), assistant positions with Indiana (2014-17), South Carolina (2017-22) and Oregon (2022-23) and a scout job with the Oklahoma City Thunder before working under Calipari again at Kentucky (2023-24). His primary roles for the Wildcats included recruiting, scouting and player develpoment.
Antigua served three stints under Calipari — once at Memphis (2008-09) and twice at Kentucky (2009-14, 2021-24). His specialty is in recruiting, as Antigua helped sign the No. 1 recruiting class for the Wildcats in 2010 and 2011 and mulitple top-5 players.
Payne played a vital role as a Wildcats' assistant and associate head coach from 2010-2020, a time that included 11 highly-ranked recruiting classes and Calipari's lone National Championship (2011-12).
The younger Calipari played at Kentucky under his father from 2016-18 before moving into an assistant role with the Wildcats following the end of his collegiate career (2021-22). After spending one season at LIU as the Director of Player Development, Calipari was hired by Vanderbilt for the 2023-24 campaign. Brad was in attendance for his father's introduction to the Razorback faithful on Wednesday.
"Brad played for me for three years at Kentucky, graduated and he put his name in the portal," Calipari said. "So he was the first coach’s son who said, ‘I’m out.’ And he went and played at Detroit for Mike Davis and had a terrific career and has done good. He was at Vanderbilt with Jerry Stackhouse last year and did a great job of coaching."
Current Razorback Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator Ronnie Brewer Jr. is expected to be a holdover from former head coach Eric Musselman's staff, as seen from this tweet.
HawgBeat will closely follow all movement regarding Arkansas basketball's roster and coaching staff, so stay tuned to The Trough premium message board for the latest.
