In the past two offseasons, the Kentucky Wildcats have made assistant coaching changes. In 2021, John Calipari brought in Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman to revamp recruiting and replaced Jai Lucas with K.T. Turner last summer.
This coming offseason, Kentucky will once again be on the search for another assistant. On Monday, it was reported that Turner would be accepting the head coaching position at UT Arlington at the conclusion of Kentucky’s season.
With 18 years of college coaching experience, this comes as no surprise. Prior to coming to Kentucky, Turner served as associate head coach under Porter Moser at Oklahoma but has also served in the same position at Southern Methodist (SMU) under Larry Brown, and at Texas under Shaka Smart.
Turner’s impact will be most felt in recruiting. Only being at Kentucky for one season and with a 2023 recruiting class that the other assistants had laid the groundwork for, he did not secure any commitments. However, he was able to put the Wildcats in a good position for future recruits, specifically in the 2024 and 2025 classes.
One such recruit is Tre Johnson, the No. 1 overall prospect in the 2024 class, whose family is close friends with Turner. While Kentucky will likely still be very much into play for Johnson, Turner’s absence will likely have some effect.
With that said, John Calipari is arguably the best recruiter in college basketball history and has two of the best recruiting assistants in the country in Antigua and Coleman.
Who will Kentucky look at? While it is still early, there is one candidate that makes the most sense, a former John Calipari ‘protege’.
Josh Pastner
Josh Pastner served as John Calipari’s assistant for just one season (2008-09) at Memphis, but made a strong impression, so much so that he was nearly an assistant at Kentucky before Memphis offered him the head coaching position.
Since then, Pastner has had head coaching opportunities with Memphis and Georgia Tech. At each of those jobs, he had his mild successes – even winning ACC Coach of the Year in 2017 – but the general consensus is that he has underperformed.
Recently let go from Georgia Tech, Pastner would likely be open to a reunion with Calipari, and based on Cal’s own comments in the past, he would too. “His recruiting was so relentless that the kid would basically say, ‘If you stop calling me, I’ll come,’ ” Calipari said before playing Georgia Tech in 2020. “He’s one of those. He’s relentless. But he’s such a good guy.”
While Pastner’s head coaching career wasn’t the best, he did win an ACC Coach of the Year award and did have prior success as an assistant under Calipari in the past.
With the NCAA passing a rule to add two more coaching positions, Kentucky could add one more coach as well. One name that had been mentioned is Rajon Rondo, and there is mutual interest in bringing him on the staff.
Given Pastner’s past, he would be a solid hire, but do you think there are better names out there?
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