This morning, Indiana basketball assistant Bruiser Flint has been hired by University of Kentucky. Jon Calipari’s previous assistant coach, Kenny Payne, was hired by the New York Knicks this morning to work under newly appointed head coach Tom Thibodeau.
Payne has been an assistant at Kentucky for the past decade under Calipari, but also had a strong relationship with the Knicks management, including President Leon Rose and Senior VP William Wesley.
Calipari and Flint Reunited
Bruiser Flint and Jon Calipari have a strong relationship that developed while at UMass when Flint joined in 1989. The two worked together for eight years before Flint took over as head coach in 1996-97. Under Calipari, the Minutemen had a 193-71 record with a (vacated) Final Four and Elite Eight appearance along with three other NCAA Tournament teams.
Flint took over and went 86-72 over 5 seasons. Flint then went on to coach Drexel for more than a decade, then joined Indiana under Archie Miller. Flint will provide more than 30 years of coaching experience and be a strong addition to University of Kentucky’s staff.
He joins Tony Barbee, Joel Justus, and John Robic on Kentucky’s staff.
Indiana’s next assistant coach search
Now, Archie will start his search for a replacement to join Tom Ostrom and Mike Roberts. Tom Ostrom is the only member that has now been with Indiana since Archie joined the staff at Indiana.
As this announcement came unexpectedly, there likely are no candidates on the table, but the team will be on the immediate search for a replacement as the season’s start is less than 3 months away.
Flint was primarily focused on recruitment of the east coast. He was leading the recruitment for both Aminu Mohammed and Blake Wesley.
