Impact of Kentucky Basketball landing 2 key Illinois assistants
By Joey Loose
In news that had been expected for a few weeks, Kentucky Basketball recently announced the hiring of two new assistant coaches, Orlando Antigua and Ron Coleman, both of whom had spent the last four years on the staff at Illinois. The former Brad Underwood aides head to Lexington to join a coaching staff that John Calipari has completely rebuilt in the last two offseasons, having recently lost Tony Barbee to Central Michigan and Joel Justus to Arizona State.
Antigua previously spent five seasons on Calipari’s staff and also coached with him at Memphis. He had left Lexington for an unsuccessful three-year stint as head coach at South Florida but has finally found his way back to Kentucky. Antigua is widely regarded as one of college basketball’s best recruiters and will again be an important tool for Calipari, especially after a really poor past year for the Wildcats.
Coleman is a native of Chicago who’s spent time on the staffs at Bradley, UIC, Colorado State, and Nebraska. He was hired onto Brad Underwood’s original Illinois staff four seasons ago and also stands out as a fantastic recruiter and impressive coach of defense. He was responsible for bringing some of the best recent talent to UIC and his connections to the rich basketball talent in Chicago will be fantastic for Kentucky.
Looking ahead, it’s easy to see that the Wildcats have greatly upgraded their coaching staff. A program like Kentucky led by John Calipari will never have a problem bringing talent to Lexington, but the addition of two recruiting studs like Antigua and Coleman seems almost unfair. Combined with former Texas assistant Jai Lucas, these three make one of Calipari’s finest coaching staffs, a staff that also has longtime former D1 head coach Bruiser Flint on it.
On the other side, this creates a big hole for Brad Underwood and Illinois to fill. Antigua was responsible for bringing Kofi Cockburn to Illinois, while Ayo Dosunmu’s decision and development fell greatly on these two as well. The relationships that these two forged with the players and future recruits cannot be undermined either. This is a terrible loss for the Fighting Illini, but it’s not the end of the world.
Biggest SEC roster needs. dark. Next
Underwood likely already has a few names in mind to fill out the rest of his staff. Despite their early NCAA Tournament exit, the Illini are coming off one of their best seasons in recent memory. With much of that talent leaving Illinois, it’ll be hard to replicate that success in the immediate future, but with a few talented recruiters Underwood can get this train back on the tracks.
Illinois is not about to turn into a yearly juggernaut like Kentucky, but this past season’s success is certainly evidence that Antigua and Coleman are impressive hires for Calipari.