Antigua, Coleman to join UK men’s basketball coaching staff

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - The Kentucky men’s basketball team is adding to its coaching staff.

Thursday, they added someone familiar with the program under Coach Calipari with the return of Orlando Antigua.

Antigua, a key assistant in the first five seasons of the John Calipari era at Kentucky, has rejoined the program as associate coach. Ronald ‘Chin’ Coleman is also headed to Lexington via Illinois after four seasons with the Illini and will be an assistant coach.

Those two were the lead recruiters that loaded Illinois with so much talent that Brad Underwoods’s team was one of the top 4-seeds in the NCAA tourney this year.

Antigua helped UK pull in five straight top-ranked recruiting classes (recruiting services consensus index). In his initial season with the Wildcats, Antigua saw three of his signees drafted in the first round of the 2010 NBA draft. He was a central figure in the 2010 and 2011 No. 1 classes which led UK to its eighth national title in 2012 and its first since 1998.

He was the head coach at South Florida for two and a half seasons before going to Champaign.

Coleman spent the last four seasons in Illinois and helped lead them to back-to-back 20 win seasons for the first time in nearly a decade.

Antigua and Coleman will occupy two of the three on-court assistant coaching positions on the 2021-22 staff. Jai Lucas will remain in the other assistant coaching position and Bruiser Flint will be elevated to associate to the head coach.