Three of Calipari’s staff hired

With reports and rumors running wild about UK’s roster next year, new coach John Calipari has started filling out his coaching staff, too.

Orlando Antigua, John Robic and Rod Strickland will be members of Calipari’s staff, UK spokesman DeWayne Peevy said Wednesday evening. All three attended the Cats’ practice Wednesday.

Titles for the new hires won’t be officially settled until a fourth and final member of the staff is selected, Peevy said.

“Those three are on staff, at least two of those will be assistant coaches,” Peevy said. “I don’t want to read into it too much because I haven’t talked with the coaches about it. I know of those three, two were assistant coaches under Coach Cal at Memphis. Until it’s all settled, I don’t know anything definitive in terms of titles.”

Antigua and Robic were assistant coaches at Memphis last season, and Strickland served as director of basketball operations. Calipari’s other assistant coach last season, Josh Pastner, was named Memphis’ new head coach Tuesday.

Peevy said no timetable is in place to select the fourth member of the staff, but his background or previous job titles may affect the roles in which all four staff members are placed.

“It just depends on the fourth hire,” Peevy said. “Rod Strickland could move up to assistant coach, whereas his title at Memphis was director of basketball operations. I haven’t spoken with the coaches about their titles here, I’m just reading into their titles under Coach Cal at Memphis. Nothing here is set right now.”

Last season was Antigua’s first with Calipari at Memphis. Prior to his one-year stint with the Tigers, Antigua served five years on the staff (including two as assistant coach) at Pittsburgh, his alma mater.

Robic spent three years at Memphis under Calipari and also served as an assistant for Calipari at Massachusetts. Between his stints at Massachusetts and Memphis, Robic spent six seasons as the head coach at Youngstown State.

Strickland joined Memphis’ staff in the fall of 2006 as director of student-athlete development and manager. Strickland was promoted to director of basketball operations in 2008. Strickland played 17 NBA seasons for nine different teams from 1988-2005. Strickland is currently eighth in the NBA record book for career assists, dishing out 7,987 in 1,094 career games.