SUMMER UPDATE
AUG. 26, 2020
Assistant Coach Bruiser Flint
Assistant Coach Bruiser Flint
On what he knows about the personnel he’s coming in to coach …
“I know a few guys that I tried to recruit. Lance Ware, Isaiah Jackson, Keion (Brooks Jr.), Terrence Clarke. So I’ve watched them a little bit. I’ve watched BJ Boston a little bit and a couple of guys in AAU but not closely. But those guys I tried to recruit a little bit so I’ve watched them pretty closely. They’re long and athletic, good skill level, so I know a little bit about them.”
On how John Calipari has evolved …
“A lot of the things are the same. That’s why he’s had so much success. One thing about Cal is he’s always open to changing and doing things differently, although he does things the same if you can understand that. He stays with his principles, but I thinkhe’s not afraid to experiment with some of his basketball. But I think his principles stay the same. Honestly, he’s a lot less crazy than he was back in those days at UMass. I know you all think he’s crazy at Kentucky now, but it’s not even close to his UMass days. So, I think he’s calmed down some to be honest with you. I think the biggest thing about Cal is he’s always is he’s always stuck with his disciplines and how he wants to run things, but I think he’s always been open to how his teams play and how he wants to approach the basketball with the personnel that he has.”
On the pressure he feels from the fan base …
“I think all assistant coaches, especially with social media, have pressure because they can talk about you. If they don’t think you’re getting any players for the coach and things like that, that comes out now. That wasn’t the case years and years ago when I got into coaching. There’s always pressure and one of the biggest pressures is to bring in players. The better your players are the better your coach is. I know that myself. I was a head coach for 20 years, so I get that part of it. And not only that too,like I said, you’re at UK. People talk about you. They put you on social media and ask, ‘What is he doing?’ Those are the types of thing that go on down there. Probably didn’t go on when I first got into coaching, but that’s part of the game now and you’ve got to deal with it.”
“I think all assistant coaches, especially with social media, have pressure because they can talk about you. If they don’t think you’re getting any players for the coach and things like that, that comes out now. That wasn’t the case years and years ago when I got into coaching. There’s always pressure and one of the biggest pressures is to bring in players. The better your players are the better your coach is. I know that myself. I was a head coach for 20 years, so I get that part of it. And not only that too,
On how much of a decision he had to make to leave Indiana to come to Kentucky …
“I don’t know if you knew about the relationship, so to be honest with you when I called Arch(ie) (Miller) and told him. He just laughed because actually they went through Cal to get me to sort of come and work for Archie. So, everybody knows the relationship. Honestly, I just wanted to make sure that our relationship could stay the same before I came to work for him. I want us to have a good relationship. We’re best of friends and I appreciate that relationship. I didn’t want that to be messed up because I come work for him. We discussed that a little bit. So that made me a lot more comfortable. I didn’t have to leave Indiana. It’s a good job. But I wanted to keep the relationship that we had, but we talk all of the time anyway. So, it was one of those things that we’re on the phone with each other almost every day even though I worked at Indiana. That was the big thing. Arch knew the deal. He knew that my relationship with the Millers is through Cal. There was nothing to be said actually.”
“I don’t know if you knew about the relationship, so to be honest with you when I called Arch(ie)
On what impact he wants to make in recruiting and if there is a position he wants to focus on coaching … “Just trying to find the best talent out there and the people that will fit into the program, people who can play for Cal, people who can take the pressure of being at Kentucky. So I think that’s the most important thing right there. In terms of position, every year I was a head coach Mmy point guard was All-League so I think I’ve done a pretty good job with guards and I’ve had pretty good job with big guys. In terms of teaching it doesn’t matter to me. It doesn’t matter to position. It’s is all about just helping the guys get better and feel confident and that they’re going to be better and feel more confident in game-type situations. It’s all about the teaching and having guys get into good habits and things like that. I know one of my chief jobs and same thing at Indiana was to help the coach get good players that fit into your system and fit into your program. So, that’s the bottom line with it. If you can do that and you’ll be an asset.”
On trying to get the UK-Indiana series going again …
“You sound like these guys I walk by when I come back to Indiana every morning and they get on me about, ‘You’re going to get this series back together again.’ [Laughs.] So, what am I supposed to say that? I mean, I think that’s a that’s above me at this point in time, but we’ve talked about it. Believe me, I talked about a lot with DeWayne (Peevy) when he was there and Scott Dolson, who’s now the (deputy) AD at the Indiana. But I mean, like I said, I would hope so, but that that’s not something that I think is part of my job description. I’ll put it to you that way.”
On if he could ever imagine working with Coach Cal again …
“No, that’s 30 years ago, so that’s a long time. There’s a long time to be apart so no, I never thought I’d worked with him again. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I’d be an assistant coach againbut things change and I’ve been fortunate to be able to not only just to come to Kentucky but go from to go to Indiana and then to Kentucky, two big-time programs and two of the better basketball programs in the country. And honestly, it’s been a blessing because of family. Not just Cal but Tony (Barbee), Robes (John Robic). Even Joel Just, you know, his teams played against my teams at Drexel when he was at UNCW. So it’sfamily. Everybody says, ‘Well, how’s the transition going to be?’ It’s going to be easy because, you know, going back to be with guys I have been with for a long time.”
On his feelings on the grad transfer rule having come from a smaller program to one that has now had several …
“I still don’t like it but you got to do your job. I mean, I get it. But, you know, I don’t like it, But, you know, in the end, if the kid wants to leave and go where he wants to go and he’s good enough, you gotta recruit him. So, you know, I think it’s become part of the job now. Now you gotta know who the grad transfers are and where they want to go. And I think my kid (Damion Lee) was one of the first ones, impact players. Now I think everybody knows that’s part of it now, so I think they accepted a little bit more. And you’re a little bit more prepared. Everybody asked me about the situation. They said, ‘What happened?’ I wasn’t prepared for it because it wasn’t a big deal at that point in time. And when a kid walks in the office and say, Hey, I’m leaving,’ to be eligible to play somewhere else, at that point in time when it happened, I don’t think a lot of coaches wereprepared. I think a lot of coaches are little bit more prepared for this situation if it was to come up now and they prepare themselves for it in terms of their own recruiting, where back then you really weren’t ready for that.”
On the transition from head coach to assistant coach and how he’ll embrace that at Kentucky …
“After Drexel I sat out for a year and I actually thought that that was a big part of it. I thought I got myself together to be able to go possibly interview for a couple of head coaching jobs, but I didn’t get them. But I think I prepared myself to be a be an assistant coach. I thought one of the things that Arch would do is he would bounce some things off me that he may not have done with the other guys on the staff because of the experience. And hopefully the same thing (here), but Tony has been a head coach, Robes has been a head coach. I think it gives you a different perspective. I think sometimes you’re a little bit more patient because you understand what goes on. But you’ve gottago and do your job and whatever Cal needs me to do, I’ll be able to do it. But I think a year sitting out, I think the transition would have been hard for me if I would have went right from being a head coach to an assistant, but I think that year sitting out gave me a little bit of time to sort of reflect and prepare myself to look at the changes might be able to that may be coming towards me.”
On what Cal’s sales pitch was to him to get him to Kentucky and if he really thinks Cal will be open-minded to his suggestions when he’s on the bench …
“[Laughs.] I’ll be honest with you, I tell people this all the time: Sometimes when you’re a head coach, you don’t want to hear from the assistants. So, I’ve experienced that. ‘OK, be quiet, let me coach my team.’ So I get that, you know what I mean? And you should get that if you were a former head coach because you’ve been through that. So, I don’t think it was a sales pitch. You know, I know Kentucky basketball. I’ve been around it and now, like I said, it’s just going back to family. This thing happened pretty quickly. And like I said, we’ve been talking about it anyway, but I don’t know if he really taught Kenny(Payne) was going to go. So then he said, ‘Yo, if this goes up, I really want you to think about this’ So I was like, ‘OK.’ But it wasn’t a lot to it, wasn’t a lot to think about. But I get the whole thing with the head coaches I have done it my whole career. ‘Just let me let me do this. This is my team, so let me do it. I’ll start listening to y’all when I want to.’ At times you do that as a coach and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.”
On playing Kentucky when he was the head coach at Kentucky and how tough it was to play his mentor …
“It wasn’t tough to play and because they gave us a lot of moneybut I will say this: They beat us by like 50 and I must have got 30 phone calls. ‘I thought it was your boy. He’s not supposed to beat you like that on national television.’ But I knew we were in trouble because that was for the 2000th win (in school history) if I’m not mistaken. So it was for the 2,000th win. So I’m in thehotel getting dressed. It’s like 5 o’clock, I think the game is at 7,and like the building was three-quarters full. I was like, ‘Ohbrother, this is going to be one of those nights. This is not going to be one those regular guarantee games.’ And they had a kid on his team — I can’t remember his name — he was shooting like 8% from the 3-point line and he made his first three 3s to start the game. I knew we were in trouble at that point. But, you know, that’s what happens sometimes. That’s what happens.”
On what his first recollection of Kentucky was growing up …
“Probably my first time watching Kentucky was, Gene Banks was from my neighborhood, he played at Duke and he’s from my neighborhood, and watching Kentucky play Duke in the(1978) national championship game. I think that’s probably one of my first real recollections of really watching them. I know Sam Bowie, Pennsylvania guy. So, you know, you watch those guys. But you know they always have those great teams, great tradition. But I would probably say that team there was probably the first team that I really watched and started paying a little bit more attention and then Bowie came through and ClarenceTillman, who was actually another Philadelphia player thatplayed there at Kentucky I think for a year or two. So, you know, you follow him a little bit. So probably late 70s, mid to late 70s, that’s when I started really paying attention to Kentucky.”
On how excited he his to come to a school where winning is more expected than celebrated …
“I’ll be honest with you, they expected winning at Indiana. So, I get that. But this is the monster that you’ve built. I mean, Cal hasput that in everybody’s head because of what he’s done here, sothey expect you to win because he’s treated the job that way. He’s built that program to the point where everybody expects you to win. And then you have great tradition. But he’s done it. So, you know, expectations are there because he made it that way. If it wasn’t then people wouldn’t think about it the same way. But his résumé since he’s been here is incredible so the expectations are going to go with it. So, I have no problem with it. That’s part of the program and you added in there and you have to approach the job that way.”
On Calipari saying he’s been re-engergized and if he gets that sense from him as well …
“Yeah, I think, you know, Cal’s always re-energized, one because he always has a new team, so I think that re-energizes you a little bit. You always got new players, new kids always coming in every year. That re-energizes you. You guys know,you cover them, so you know the energy level is always there. Change is always something different. I think one of the reasons – and maybe that’s not the case; you can ask yourself — is that he’s bringing in somebody in he already knows, so I think he’s more comfortable with that you’re not bringing somebody in that you don’t already have a really, really good relationship. So hopefully that’s the thing that he talks about would be being re-energized with the new staff – that, you know, I’m a person that’s known him, that’s been a mentor of mine and that, you know, I’m just going to slide in and we’re going to try to do what he’s been doing since he’s been here.”
On how much Indiana, a traditional program in its own right, has prepared him for this job …
“I think in recruiting I had never really recruited. I think I have always done a pretty good job but it’s a little bit different when you move up the levels. And you get used to the fans, and the fans can be a little bit crazy at these places. So, I think that wasprobably was the biggest adjustment there. One, I hadn’t been an assistant for 20 years, and then, you know, the recruiting becomes a little bit different. That way, and recruiting at this level becomes a little bit different. So that was an adjustment that I had to make, and then you realize the pressure that the fans put on you to win. I think that’s one of the biggest things right there.”
On if he can share one of his favorite past Cal stories …
“[Laughs.] That was a long time ago, man. But, I mean, you know, you see him see him go up and down the court all the time. I mean, he was just way more energetic. He sits down a little bit (now). He never sat down at UMass. He was up the whole time or he was bending his knees and, you know, suits area little bit more expensive than they were back then so he triesnot to keep them as wrinkly. But I mean, especially in practice, I watch him in practice, he’s a lot more patient than he was. Back then, you know, you didn’t have all these rules. We practiced for like five, six hours. We would come back and we would have four or five practices a day. So, you’re not allowed to do that anymore and I watch him a little bit, you know, even before I came on, watching practice, he’s a lot more patient with the guys. So I will say that’s probably the biggest thing.”
On Terrence Clarke’s game …
“A big guard. A big guard who can do a little bit everything. Unbelievable versatility. Shoots it. Puts it on the floor and canalmost play the point. I mean, that’s one of the reasons he was ranked as high as he was. I mean, in terms of versatility, there wasn’t many as good as him in the country. You saw it. You watched him, he could do a little bit everything. So, when I look at him. I just see his versatility and what he can do on the floor.I’m sort of old school though. I’m a guy that believes that, you know, it’s a little different level so you’ve got to prove it. But in terms of his talent, I think his talent is as good as you’re going to get.”
On what he liked about Keion Brooks Jr.’s game having recruited him at Indiana …
“Well, great kid. So, I mean, in recruiting him, he was one of the nicest kids you will ever be around. I thought he had anunbelievable work ethic. And Cal has talked about him because I used to always ask about him — not just to Cal but to Tony andthe guys on the staff – how Keion is doing because, you know, we did recruit him pretty hard. I don’t think he’ll have a problem taking up a leadership role just because the type of kid and howhard he works. And I think he wants it. I think that’s the most
important thing right there so I’m looking forward. His mom and his dad hit me up when they heard I was coming and they talked about how excited they were having enjoyed when I tried to recruit him at Indiana. And then when I saw him, I wasn’t able to really be down there with them, but he threw the ball up and hit the (glass) like to say, ‘Yo, I’m here.’ So, he’s a great kid and I’m sure he’s going to have a good year. Cal said he really worked hard and looking forward to coaching him this year.”