Former UMass basketball standout and assistant coach Tony Barbee was elevated to Assistant Coach at Kentucky under longtime mentor John Calipari Friday. Barbee had been the special assistant to the head coach during the 2014-15 season, following eight years as the head coach at UTEP and Auburn.
The Indianapolis native starred at UMass from 1989-93 where he helped the program to a pair of NCAA and two NIT appearances. He is currently ranks eight in school history in points (1,643), third in free throws made (477), fourth in free throws attempted (657), tenth in games played (126), fourth in starts (118) and sixth in minutes played (3,692).
After his playing career, he was a graduate assistant on the 1995-96 team before being promoted a year later to a full-time assistant during the first two years of Bruiser Flint's tenure.