Photo by Joe Robbins / Getty Images
Joe Robbins | Getty Images
John Calipari’s coaching staff gets a makeover. Longtime associate head coach Kenny Payne takes a cut at the NBA as an assistant to the New York Knicks. Although it is not yet official, several reports indicate that Bruiser Flint will fill the vacancy. What do we know about Bruiser other than that he has an incredible name? Let’s take a dive into his career as a college basketball coach and his long relationship with Calipari.
1. Flint and Calipari return WAY
In 1989, just one year after John Calipari became the head coach at UMass, Flint joined the staff of Coach Cal as an assistant, coaching alongside another name that Kentucky fans are familiar with John Robic. Considering the leading man on the staff, Flint got the giant on the UMass program, once Calipari for the Nets followed the 1996 season.
Tony Barbee joined Flint’s staff at Robic and the Minutemen went to subsequent NCAA tournaments as an excessive bid. Flint could not keep up with the airy standards set by Calipari, Flint was left to follow the 2000-01 season after setting an 86-72 record.
Philadelphia, born and raised
Flint is a product of the Big Five. A Philly native, he played collegiately for St. Louis in the mid-1980s. Joe’s. As a junior, he submitted Hawks to an A-10 Tournament Championship and an NCAA Tournament bid. The following year, he was a first-team All-Atlantic 10 selection.
After his time at UMass, Bruiser returned to Philadelphia to coach the Drexel Dragons. His 245 career victories are the most in school history. He was named Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year four times, including in 2012 when the Dragons won the regular season title. That historic season ended with the Dragons falling four points short at VCU, a team one year removed from a Final Four, in the CAA Championship Game.
3. The first opposing coach to win at the Yum! Center
Bruiser Flint is the first non-named coach Rick Pitino to win a men’s basketball game at the Yum! Center. The Dragons limited the cards to only 31% shots from the field to defeat the country’s 20th ranking 52-46 in December of 2010.
4. Historical loss of Flint to Calipari
Bruiser is also in history books at the University of Kentucky. In John Calipari’s first season in Kentucky, he fielded the Dragons to play at Rupp Arena. Of course, Flint’s Drexel team fell 88-44. The blowout was not unimportant, it was Kentucky’s 2,000th win. Rupp Arena celebrated “UK2K” as the first men’s basketball program for the milestone.
5. Controversy in Louisville
After the Dragons went just 5-26 in 2016, Flint was fired by Drexel, and ended a 15-year relationship with the school. The decision prompted John Calipari blast the NCAA Rules of Procedure. After all, the season could have looked different if Flint star player Damion Lee returned to Drexel for his senior year. Instead, he became a graduate of Louisville.
“But whatever happened, the NCAA has a rule that a child can leave a program like Drexel after being coached and trained for three years and go to another school without having to sit down. If (Damion) Lee is there, they’re in the NCAA Tournament. We did not even speak in these terms, but that happened. It’s not about the school (Louisville) that took him. It’s about us letting it happen.
‘Understand, I’ve been a dogfighter to say this is ridiculous. We took a baby because I saw Duke do it. Even then, it was me who hated me for doing this. The baby would go somewhere, so why not take him.
‘This is not only painful there. It’s just bad for business, bad for kids. It’s another thing the NCAA will say what they want to say. It’s not good for the game. It is not good for these children. And it caught Bru. Thanks.”
I think it’s safe to say that Calipari’s attitude towards transfer has shifted since Flint was released in 2016.
6. Bruiser is not his Christian name
Bruiser was born James Flint Jr. in 1965. As he explained The Athletic that he got the nickname as a child from his grandfather.
“I was in the hospital for six weeks with some kind of intestinal disease,” Flint says. ‘My grandfather said,’ Don’t worry. He will grow into a bruiser. ‘”
The name stuck because Bruiser had to live in it to play rec basketball for his father. In that same story, one assistant to St. Joe and a longtime family friend described the gruff James Flint Sr. as “the first person I ever met that whole sentences were curse words.”
7. Speaking in Indiana
He may not have spoken out in public, but he is not ashamed of Archie Miller on the bench. In his third season in Indiana, Flint and Miller had a heated exchange on the bench this spring when the Hoosiers advanced to rival Purdue.
– Alex Walker (@AlexWalkerTV) 11 August 2020
8. A Short List of Commits at Indiana
During his short term, Indiana was raised in the recruiting ranks by bringing Romeo Langford and Trayce Jackson-Davis to Bloomington. Flint, however, was not considered the primary recruiter in any of those high-profile additions. The 247 Sports Database credits Flint only for four signals, most notably Robert Phinesee, none of whom are in the top 100 ranks.
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