Kentucky made the long-rumored Bruiser Flint hiring official on Monday.

Flint, a former assistant coach for John Calipari during his time at UMass, will fill the opening on the staff that was created when Kenny Payne took a position with the New York Knicks.

“Bru is not only a terrific coach, he’s like my brother," Calipari said in a statement released by UK. "You’re not going to find anyone that says a bad word about him. He forms great relationships with players because he listens, has a terrific personality, and can relate to anyone. Bruiser has an incredible basketball mind and is going to help us in a lot of ways. He was a terrific player, too.

“Bruiser is one of those guys who has always done more than people thought possible, both as a player and a coach. I can’t wait to get started and get back at it with Bru as a part of our team.”

Flint has served as a head coach a Drexel (2001-2016) and UMass (1996-2001). He was also an assistant coach under Calipari for seven seasons at UMass. He spent the last three years as an assistant coach at Indiana under Archie Miller.

He won 331 games as a head coach during his 20 seasons at the helm at UMass and Drexel. Four times he was named Colonial Athletic Association Coach of the Year (2002, 2004, 2009 and 2012) and National Association of Basketball Coaches District Coach of the Year (1998, 2007, 2009 and 2012).

“I am so excited to get started in Lexington," Flint said. "Kentucky, as Coach Cal likes to say, is the gold standard in college basketball. Going back to our time at UMass, Coach Cal has been both a brother and a mentor to me for 30 years. I have always had great respect for his approach and his care for his players. He and I both believe that when you put players first — when you make their dreams your dreams — we can accomplish special things."

Flint played a key role in the development of Marcus Camby, who won the John R. Wooden Award and the Naismith Trophy as the national player of the year in 1996. Camby was drafted No. 2 overall in the NBA Draft that spring.

In his latest stop, at Indiana as an assistant, Flint was part of a staff that produced the No. 11 recruiting class nationally in 2018 and 2020, including Indiana Mr. Basketball winners Romeo Langford (2018) and Trayce Jackson-Davis (2019). Langford and Jackson-Davis were named McDonald’s All-Americans and Langford was a lottery pick by the Boston Celtics.