Kentucky Wildcats head coach John Calipari has been a staple in the SEC for years, coaching the program for 14 years and counting. His son, Brad Calipari, will look to follow in his father’s footsteps in the SEC, but it won’t be under his dad’s tutelage.
Brad Calipari played under his dad at Kentucky for two seasons from 2016-2018 before transferring to Detroit Mercy to finish his playing career.
After his playing career was over, he returned to Kentucky as a graduate assistant for one season. He was most recently at Long Island University as the Director of Player Development, but he will now reportedly be returning to the SEC as a foe to his dad.
According to Kyle Tucker of The Athletic, Vanderbilt is expected to hire Calipari in a player development role under head coach Jerry Stackhouse.
Hearing Brad Calipari is headed back to the SEC — but as a rival to his dad. Jerry Stackhouse expected to hire Brad in a player development role at Vanderbilt.
— Kyle Tucker (@KyleTucker_ATH) July 3, 2023
Interestingly, this actually makes it the second child of John Calipari to be involved with Vanderbilt. Erin Calipari, John’s daughter, is an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine Basic Sciences.
Vanderbilt has been a basketball program that isn’t typically seen as a rival to Kentucky in the SEC. However, that has changed in recent years. Vanderbilt was actually able to win two of the three games between the two teams last year.
It is somewhat surprising to see that Brad Calipari will be joining another SEC program instead of joining his father at Kentucky, but he may want to pave his own path under a different head coach.
