Report: Kentucky to Hire John Welch to Coaching Staff

Welch has over three decades of coaching experience in the college and professional ranks.

Kentucky head coach John Calipari has reportedly hired a longtime coach to join the Wildcats staff in the 2023-24 season. 

Kentucky Sports Radio's Jack Pilgrim reported late Wednesday night that UK is expected to bring on John Welch to take one of the five on-court staff positions and be focused on game planning and workouts. He is the father of former Wildcat and graduate assistant Riley Welch. 

Hailing from Portland, Maine, Welch has an extensive coaching career that began as a GA at UNLV in 1986 following the end of his playing career in Las Vegas. He was then an assistant at Long Beach State and Fresno State before making the jump to the NBA in 2002, where he was an assistant with the Memphis Grizzlies. 

From there, he made stops with the Brooklyn Nets, Sacramento Kings and most recently the Los Angeles Clippers, where he was an assistant from 2016-2020. Put that all together and you have over three decades of experience. 

It's expected that Welch's role won't be one of the three recruiters, but he will still be on-court, thanks to expansion from the Division I Council that saw an increase of two additional coaches. Kentucky lost assistant coach K.T. Turner this offseason, as he left to become the new head coach of UT Arlington. 

The hiring of Welch brings in a wealth of experience with X's and O's, an area that was a cause for concern for the UK staff last season. 

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Inside Kentucky basketball's somber locker room after NCAA Tourney defeat HERE.

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