Kentucky Wildcats Basketball: Media praises “honey in the house” of Bruiser Flint

On Tuesday, the Kentucky Wildcats’ longtime assistant coach Kenny Payne decided to accept a job offer to become assistant coach for the New York Knicks.

Shortly after the announcement, it was reported that Bruiser Flint, who was an assistant under John Calipari at UMASS, would leave Indiana to join the staff in Kentucky and replace Payne.

Flint took over for coach Cal as head coach at UMASS when Cal left and later became head coach at Drexel. He spent 20 years as D1 head coach winning 331 games and he has more than 30 years of coaching experience.

After helping coach Cal lead the UMASS program to her only Final Four appearance in history in 1996, Flint then went 86-72 as head coach in five years and had a few appearances of the NCAA Tournament.

As head coach at Drexel, Flint spent 15 years and became the programs’ all-time leader in profits with 245.

Cal could almost have chosen by hand who he wanted to replace Payne and decided to go with someone who has experience. Not only can Cal trust Flint, but because he was an assistant under Cal for seven seasons, he knows how Cal wants to execute his program.

Andy Katz of NCAA March Madness took to Twitter to comment on the hair and called it a ‘home run hire. ‘

“Bruiser Flint loves coaching in the Big Ten. He will miss it. He fell for the league. And was an enormous asset to Indiana men’s basketball and Archie Miller. But reunion with John Calipari makes too much sense, ‘tweeted Katz. “Home rental for Cal to replace Kenny Payne on his staff. The 90s are back! ”

Phil Martelli responded to Katz’s tweet and talked about the field battles Cal and Flint had with John Chaney the other day.

“Bruiser with John Calipari will bring [former Temple head coach] John Chaney retired !!! Those field battles in the Atlantic-10 made for must watch TV !! “Martelli tweeted.” A true testimony of friendship !! “

But Katz is not the only member of the media to present Flint’s Kentucky inauguration.

In an interview with Cats Illustrated, stadium reporter Jon Rothstein said Flint should help improve the Wildcats’ defense, which is already among the top units in college basketball under Calipari on an annual basis.

And like Calipari, Flint has great human skills that translate to success on the recruiting track.

“Bruiser is an elite defensive coach,” Rothstein said. “John Calipari has always been an elite defensive coach and I think Tony Barbee has also had a big hand in defending Kentucky over the last few years. I would expect that with all those guys together Kentucky will have all hands on the deck when it comes to defensive basketball coaching. ”

“He has the best human skills of anyone, anywhere in college basketball,” Rothstein added.

In an interview with The Athletic, former Hofstra coach Tom Pecora praised the toughness and physicality of Flint’s teams when he was Drexel’s head coach.

‘He was hard as sh * t. His teams adopted his personality, ”said Pecora. ‘They never let you get to screens, much less use them. You had to match their physicality and their intensity. They tried to impose their will directly on you from the gate, so you had to match that toughness. Otherwise, they would just take your heart. ”

While it’s hard to lose a coach as good as Payne, it sounds certain that Flint is one of the best tenants that Kentucky could have made to replace the influence Payne had on the program.

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