Orlando Antigua interested in remaining on Kentucky coaching staff under Mark Pope

The previous expectation was that all of Kentucky’s assistants would be following John Calipari to Arkansas with Mark Pope bringing in his own staff. However, it appears that the Wildcats could have one significant holdover from the last regime to the new one.

KSR’s Matt Jones provided an update on Pope’s staff during their radio show on Thursday morning. Amongst his news, he shared that Orlando Antigua, who has spent the past three years in Lexington and eight total during Calipari’s tenure, does apparently wish to stay at UK, even to the point that he has been coming into the building under his current title still as an assistant.

“There’s a lot of chatter and I can confirm that Orlando wants to stay. That Orlando, he’s still here,” Jones said. “He has still been showing up to work in the Craft Center because he’s technically still an assistant coach, unlike a lot of the others who resigned. He hasn’t yet.”

With that said, there’s no read yet on whether Pope and the Wildcats will want to retain him moving forward.

“I don’t know what UK is going to do there,” noted Jones.

Antigua came to Kentucky for the first time in 2009 as part of Calipari’s first staff. He would spend five years on their bench through 2014, a span that put up a record of 152-37 (.804) and the team’s lone national title of the tenure.

Antigua then became head coach at USF. That stint did not last long, though, with a 23-55 (.295) record over two and a half years. The Bulls would then go on to fire him in the midst of his third season in ’16-’17.

From there, Antigua landed in Champaign in an assistant role at Illinois under Brad Underwood. He’d spend four years there as part of the Fighting Illinis’ turnaround, including their finish in his final year there where they went 24-7, won the Big Ten Tournament, and was a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

That’s where Calipari reconnected with him and, as such, hired both Antigua and Chin Coleman away from the Illinois bench. He has been in the bluegrass ever since with him having been on staff again over the last three seasons.

Antigua has been a key assistant during Calipari’s stints at Memphis and Kentucky. That includes work as a developmental coach as well as a respected recruiter.

It’s also of note that, from the same update this morning, Jones said Kenny Payne, Louisville’s previous head coach, has also been under consideration for Pope. Payne spent a decade as an assistant and associate head coach at Kentucky with Calipari, including the five alongside Antigua. Still, it’s unclear whether Kentucky will bring either on, especially the pair of them together.

Retaining Antigua could be a noteworthy win for Pope based on his past experiences with the program. It would be a move that would say a lot about his work over the past few days to build a quality staff around him, which should apparently be officially finalized and announced within the next few days.

“I give him credit; he’s moving silently and trying to get stuff finished,” said Jones. “I’m told that, like, they now pretty much know what they’re gonna do staff-wise. It’ll just at some point, presumably leak to the general public.”