Vanderbilt has hired Brad Calipari, the son of Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari, to serve as its director of on-court player development. The Commodores announced Monday that Calipari joined Jerry Stackhouse’s staff after serving in a similar role at Long Island University.
Brad Calipari played for his father at Kentucky from 2017-19 and was a part of a program that won 88 games, advanced to the Elite Eight twice and won two SEC Tournament titles. He finished his collegiate playing career at Detroit Mercy where he saw action in 33 games over two seasons for the Titans. During the 2019-20 season, Calipari averaged 6.1 points per game and connected on 51 3-pointers.
Vanderbilt took two of three games from Kentucky this past season, beating the Wildcats at Rupp Arena for the first time since 2007 and later in the SEC Tournament. The Commodores are coming off a season in which they barely missed out on the NCAA Tournament. Vanderbilt won 10 of its final 12 games to finish the season 20-14 before falling to UAB 67-59 in the NIT Quarterfinals.
Vanderbilt recently promoted James Strong to a new role as an assistant coach after he served as the director of operations.