Brad Calipari hired as Director of On-Court Player Development at Vanderbilt
Brad Calipari’s move to Nashville has been made official, announced as the Director of On-Court Player Development on Jerry Stackhouse’s staff at Vanderbilt.
The son of Hall of Fame coach John Calipari changed his social media bios to reflect the move back on July 3. And after two weeks of radio silence — one hanging out with his dad and old friends at Kentucky in Toronto at the GLOBL JAM — the Commodores finally announced the addition on Monday.
“Brad is a talented, young coach who has worked hard to prepare himself for this opportunity,” Stackhouse said. “He is knowledgeable, high-energy, and a strong communicator. We are very excited about his ability to add value with our student-athletes and within our coaching staff.”
Calipari served as the Director of Player Development for LIU Brooklyn under head coach Rod Strickland in 2022-23, remaining with the program after Derek Kellogg — who played for Coach Cal at UMass — was fired in June 2022. Before then, he spent a year with the Wildcats as a graduate assistant in 2021-22, involved in all on-court activities including practices, individual workouts and film sessions while also playing an integral role in the development of practice plans and advanced scouting.
As a player, he started his career at Kentucky, suiting up in blue and white as a walk-on from 2016-18. Following Elite Eight and Sweet 16 runs, he transferred to Detroit Mercy to close out his career from 2019-21. The former sharpshooter saw action in 33 games over two seasons, averaging 6.1 points per game on 38.0% shooting from deep in 2019-20.
He graduated from Kentucky with a bachelor’s degree in communications and media studies in 2019 before earning a master’s degree in liberal arts from Detroit Mercy in 2021. He then followed it up with a master’s certificate in sports kinesiology during his grad assistant year in Lexington in 2022.
Now, Calipari will join Stackhouse’s staff at SEC rival Vanderbilt as he continues to build his coaching career.
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