Kentucky has a new assistant coach. Here’s what the ‘Basketball Benny’ will bring to UK.

While attention remains fixated on what Kentucky’s still-undecided basketball players will do with their futures, John Calipari has made an addition to his coaching staff for next season.

And the new guy has a familiar name.

Longtime NBA assistant John Welch will join Calipari’s staff for the 2023-24 season, UK announced Monday morning. Welch, who has more than three decades of coaching experience at the NBA and college levels, is also the father of former Kentucky player and graduate assistant Riley Welch.

Welch, 60, will fill a new position on the Kentucky staff made possible through a recent NCAA rule change that allows for schools to add two full-time assistant coaches. Coaches in those roles will be permitted to give basketball instruction and fulfill other on-the-court duties, but they will not be allowed to recruit off campus.

“I am thrilled to be joining the Kentucky basketball program,” Welch said in a statement. “I look forward to working with Coach Cal and his tremendous coaching and support staff. Helping players grow and develop has always been my passion as a coach, and I can’t wait to get in the gym with our team this summer. It is an honor to become a part of Big Blue Nation’s proud basketball tradition and have the opportunity to assist in the continued success of the premier program in college basketball.”

UK still has an opening for an assistant coach that will also serve as one of the program’s off-campus recruiters. Orlando Antigua and Chin Coleman currently hold two of those three positions, with the Cats still looking for a replacement for former Kentucky assistant K.T. Turner, who accepted the head coaching position at UT Arlington in March.

Longtime Calipari assistant Bruiser Flint also remains on staff and could fill the other new position made available through the NCAA rule change.

The Herald-Leader was told that Welch’s duties will include opposition scouting and game planning, overseeing the program’s on-court player development plans, and assisting with the team’s offensive strategies. His role is expected to be similar, in some regard, to one previously held by John Robic, who was the longest-serving staff member over Calipari’s coaching career — a total of 19 seasons as a full assistant, with stops at UMass, Memphis and Kentucky — before parting ways with UK’s program in 2021.

Welch, who was born in Maine and grew up in Las Vegas, played college basketball at Nevada before finishing his career at UNLV for the 1985-86 season. He worked for three years as a grad assistant at UNLV under Hall of Fame coach Jerry Tarkanian and then spent two seasons as a full assistant at Long Beach State.

When Tarkanian accepted the head coaching position at Fresno State, he made Welch one of his first hires and retained him for his full tenure with the Bulldogs from 1995 to 2002.

Upon Tarkanian’s retirement in 2002, Welch moved on to the NBA, where he was an assistant coach with the Memphis Grizzlies (2002-05), Denver Nuggets (2005-13), Brooklyn Nets (2013-15), Sacramento Kings (2015-16) and Los Angeles Clippers (2016-20). Head coaches he worked under at those stops included Hall of Famers Hubie Brown and George Karl, as well as Doc Rivers, who was named one of the NBA’s “15 greatest coaches” as part of the league’s 75th anniversary honors in 2021.

Welch’s tenure in the NBA ended in 2020, when the Clippers parted ways with Rivers, who landed the Philadelphia 76ers head coaching position. Welch was most recently the head coach of a professional team in Mexico.

Welch-Calipari connection

While Calipari and Welch have never served on the same coaching staff, their relationship stretches back more than two decades, and it’s clear that a mutual respect was quickly formed.

Calipari had been the head coach at Memphis for two seasons by the time Welch landed his first NBA job in the same city in 2002, as an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies.

Following the 2002-03 basketball season, Welch called Calipari and said there was a junior college coach he wanted him to meet.

“I’ve always respected Johnny Welch,” Calipari told Sports Illustrated in a 2008 story that recounted that meeting and what came next. “He’s a Basketball Benny, knows coaches, studies the game. He says, ‘Look, I’ve got a guy coming in here, and I want him to spend some time with you. You ought to look at his offense.’”

Kentucky fans know that the term “Basketball Benny” — when used sincerely, as it was here — is the ultimate compliment from Calipari, and the man Welch wanted him to meet that day — Vance Walberg — ended up having a profound impact on Calipari’s coaching style.

Walberg was the innovator of what is now known as the dribble-drive motion offense, which Calipari adopted aspects of for his Memphis teams after meeting with the coach that summer. The offensive approach became synonymous with Calipari’s teams over the years, and Welch was the facilitator that made it happen.

During his days as a Fresno State assistant, Welch had regularly observed practices run by Walberg, who was a high school coach in the city at that time.

“I’ve been around some unbelievable coaches — Tark, Hubie Brown, Mike Fratello, now George Karl and Tim Grgurich — and I’ve learned as much from Vance as from anybody else,” Welch told SI for that 2008 article.

Calipari was obviously smitten with Walberg’s techniques, as well.

As Welch’s career took him to several other NBA stops — and Calipari departed Memphis for Kentucky in 2009 — the two coaches remained in contact. And Welch has left behind a string of favorable impressions from some big names in professional basketball.

A 2012 profile in the Denver Post — toward the end of Welch’s eight-year run with the Nuggets — was filled with praise from those around the organization at the time.

“I don’t want to talk about him — because I don’t want any other team to take him,” said general manager Masai Ujiri. “He’s the best, he’s the best in the NBA, there’s no doubt about it. No disrespect to anybody, but he’s the best player development coach in the NBA. He takes basketball seriously — his work, his trade.”

Ujiri ended up winning the NBA Executive of the Year Award after that season and was later the architect of the Toronto Raptors roster that won the 2019 championship.

The praise for Welch also extended to the players.

“He pushes you — if you do a Welch workout, you know it,” said Nuggets forward Corey Brewer, who won two national titles at Florida and spent 13 years in the NBA. “He’s the hardest-working coach I’ve ever played with. He’s there every day, constantly wants to work you out, tries to get you better. And that’s what you need when you’re a young team, no doubt about that.”

Welch at Kentucky

Welch will be getting a young team next season in Lexington — a roster that features the No. 1-ranked recruiting class, headlined by presumptive starting point guard DJ Wagner, an electric offensive player who has shown an innate ability to slash toward the basket.

Figuring out the best ways to utilize Wagner’s unique skill set — as well as those talented, if unproven, players around him — is likely to be at the top of Welch’s to-do list starting with this summer’s workouts.

“Point guards — he loves point guards — he teaches pick-and-roll stuff, angles,” Karl told the Denver Post of Welch in 2012. “And when you defend this particular way, what your options are, what you have to do. The perimeter guys, he works with their footwork to get ready to shoot the ball. And he can handle the big guys very well, too. He does big-men footwork drills and catches. …

“What I think he does very well is he takes what I want and incorporates it into his drills and repetition. John and I are very seldom not on the same wavelength.”

A few years later, at the beginning of Welch’s four-year run as a Clippers assistant, Rivers and NBA point guard legend Chris Paul were among those who praised his energy level, teaching methods and immediate ability to connect with players and gain their trust on the court.

“He’s got the ear of a lot of our guys,” Rivers said then. “The work has been noticeable, and it’s been great.”

While Welch’s offensive style and teachings have evolved over the years, he’s spoken at previous stops about playing fast and beginning the offensive attack early in the possession, a style that Calipari has had success with in the past, especially when he’s had the type of point guards that Wagner projects to be.

“A big emphasis has just been: push the ball, play as fast as we can,” Welch said while coaching the Kings’ summer league team before the 2015-16 season. “We think everything’s easier early in the clock, whether it’s penetrations, pick-and-rolls, post-ups — we want to get into it as fast as we can. Then sprint back and make the other team play half-court offense.”

In that same interview, it was pointed out that Willie Cauley-Stein — then an NBA rookie after three years at Kentucky — had said that what Welch was doing was similar to the style he had played in Lexington.

“Willie’s way ahead of the game,” Welch said then. “Willie’s done a great job of running the floor and getting down the court early, and then playing behind or under the defense. We try to penetrate a lot, and we want Willie right by the rim to — if we miss a layup — to tip it in. Or as a target on our penetration — to pass it to him for easy baskets.”

UK’s roster remains somewhat unsettled for the 2023-24 season, but Welch should have several talented and versatile players at his disposal while helping Calipari craft an offensive approach for this group of Wildcats.

Welch will also bring a trusted voice to Calipari’s inner circle, an energetic coach who might just open up some new wrinkles to the way Kentucky plays moving forward.

“John Welch has been involved in every level of basketball and been an important part of the development of NBA careers for guys like Carmelo (Anthony), Pau Gasol, DeMarcus Cousins, Blake Griffin and Brook Lopez,” Calipari said Monday. “He loves the game and will be a tremendous asset to our young players and our staff. John has worked closely for decades with Vance Walberg, who developed the dribble-drive offense, and was a pioneer of bringing it to the NBA. With the strength of our guards and perimeter players we need to get back to that style of play.

“John will be involved heavily in our offensive strategy and will be our lead coach in on-court player development. We’re excited to have him join our program.”