Central Michigan hires Kentucky’s Tony Barbee amid major staff changes at UK
By ADAM ZAGORIA
The Kentucky men’s basketball staff is undergoing several key changes with several coaches on their way out and an old face expected to return.
Tony Barbee, the associate head coach under John Calipari, will become the new head coach at Central Michigan, according to multiple reports. Prior to these last seven seasons at Kentucky, Barbee was formerly the head coach at Auburn and UTEP where he went a combined 131-127.. The news was first reported by Kyle Tucker of The Athletic.
Assistant coach Joel Justus is moving on to serve as an assistant under Bobby Hurley at Arizona State, sources confirmed. The news was first reported by ESPN.com. Justus fills the spot vacated by Rashon Burno, who left to become the head coach at Northern Illinois.
ESPN credited Justus with recruiting Bam Adebayo, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Immanuel Quickley, Keldon Johnson, Johnny Juzang, Brandon Boston and 2022 five-star guard Skyy Clark.
Meantime, longtime former Kentucky and current Illinois assistant Orlando Antigua is the subject of a bidding war between Illinois and Kentucky. Illinois has made a significant 4-year offer, and Kentucky now must counter-offer, sources said.
Former associate head coach Kenny Payne left Calipari’s staff prior to the season to serve as an assistant with the Knicks. He was a candidate for the DePaul job, which ultimately went to Oregon associate head coach Tony Stubblefield.
This post has been updated.
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