PODCAST: Bruiser Flint tells KSR he's "coming back to family"

On Thursday, new Kentucky basketball assistant Bruiser Flint called in to Kentucky Sports Radio to chat with Matt Jones about his new old gig under John Calipari. Hired last week to replace Kenny Payne on UK’s staff, Flint called it, “coming back to family,” as he reunites with his old boss, Calipari, who first hired Flint in 1989 as an assistant on his UMass staff. Then when Cal left for the NBA in 1996, Flint took over the head coaching job he left behind.

“Cal is like a brother to me,” Flint told KSR. “He’s been a great mentor to me. We talk all the time, although I haven’t worked for him for 30 years. We pretty much kept in contact every day during that time, so it was just an opportunity to come back to family and hopefully help somebody that I truly love as a brother; and be around some family.”

That family also includes fellow assistants Tony Barbee and John Robic. Flint coached Barbee with Calipari and Robic when Barbee was a UMass guard from 1989-93, then Barbee went back to UMass as a grad assistant under Calipari and an assistant coach under Flint.

Robic was also an assistant coach with Flint in Calipari’s UMass days, then remained on Flint’s staff through 1999, a total of 11 seasons together on the UMass bench.

“We go back so far, I’m the godfather of one of John Robic’s children, one of his daughters. So we go back a long way, it was just a matter of coming back. It was the easy thing to do, to go back and work with family.”

Now they’re all together again, but Flint’s friends and family members are more excited about him joining the Big Blue Nation than re-joining his old coaching pals.

Flint said, “I got so many messages like, ‘WOW, you’re going to Kentucky.’ Not that I was going to work for Cal because everyone knows that’s my guy, but it was like, “Whoa, you’re going to work for Kentucky.'”

Hear the entire interview in the beginning of Hour 2 below: