FAYETTEVILLE — New Arkansas men’s basketball coach John Calipari is expected to bring four members of his previous Kentucky staff with him to begin his career with the Razorbacks. CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander first reported the news.
Calipari was introduced as Arkansas' new coach Wednesday after 15 years with Kentucky. The Razorbacks had to replace former coach Eric Musselman, who departed for Southern Cal last week.
Calipari is expected to bring assistants Orlando Antigua, Chin Coleman and Chuck Martin with him. Bruiser Flint will reportedly be a special assistant while Brad Calipari, John's son, will serve in a player development role. John Welch is the only Kentucky bench staff member who was not included in Norlander's report.
Antigua previously worked for Calipari from 2009-2014 and left to coach South Florida. He rejoined the Wilcats in 2021. He was part of the staff that brought five consecutive top-ranked recruiting classes. He was also a key part of player development with Oscar Tshiebwe and had three signees selected in the NBA Draft's first round. He was on Calipari’s staff for the 2012 national championship, and he previously worked for Calipari at Memphis in 2008-09.
Coleman joined Calipari’s Wildcats staff in 2021 following a four-year stint with Illinois. He’s credited for developing Tyty Washington and Sahvir Wheeler at Kentucky and Ayo Dosunmu with the Fighting Illini. A native of Chicago, Coleman coached AAU there and was a member of Illinois-Chicago’s staff for two years in which the Flames had a 12-win improvement.
He played collegiately for Weber State and Lamar and has not served as a head college basketball coach.
Martin was on Calipari’s staff this past season after stops at Indiana, South Carolina and Oregon following a five-year stint as Marist’s head coach. He also served as recruiting coordinator at Kentucky. The Wildcats had the top-ranked class in the country prior to Calipari’s departure to Arkansas.
He was on Calipari’s Memphis staff that went to the national championship game in 2009.
Flint was Calipari’s successor at UMass after being on his staff for seven years. Martin worked with him at UMass and his next job at Drexel. Flint spent the 2020-21 season as an assistant before becoming associate to the head coach.
Brad Calipari played for his father for three seasons at Kentucky before transferring to Detroit Mercy. He spent this season as Vanderbilt’s on-court player development coordinator after being in the same role at Long Island.
Calipari could still add other staff members in different roles.
If hired, the new assistants — Brad Calipari excluded — would join Arkansas after their Kentucky team finished 23-10 this season. The Wildcats were upset by 14-seed Oakland in the NCAA Tournament's first round. Kentucky had the second-rated offense in the SEC this season to go with the sixth-best defense, per KenPom.