LEXINGTON, KY—Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari has found his replacement for assistant coach Jai Lucas, who was hired away by Duke a month ago. Coincidentally, it’s the same man who replaced Lucas at Texas when Calipari hired Lucas away from the Longhorns two years ago. That man is 44-year-old KT Turner, sources told The Athletic.
Turner has served as associate head coach at Southern Methodist, Texas and Oklahoma, where he spent last season under Porter Moser. He was also on staff at Wichita State when the Shockers made their stunning run to the Final Four in 2013. Turner comes highly endorsed by his former boss at SMU, Larry Brown, a Naismith Hall of Famer and longtime Calipari friend.
When Shaka Smart hired Turner at Texas, he said Brown told him: “K.T.‘s the best assistant I’ve ever been around because of the impact that K.T. has on the people around him.” Smart later said of Turner: “He’s one of those guys, if you don’t like him, then something’s wrong with you.”
Turner took over as acting head coach of the Longhorns briefly in 2021 after Smart tested positive for COVID-19.
Turner is known as a strong recruiter and developer of talent. At SMU, he played a major role in the signing and emergence of NBA draft picks Semi Ojeleye, Sterling Brown and Shake Milton. In his first few weeks on the job at OU, Turner helped lock down top-100 recruit CJ Noland after he considered other options during the Sooners’ coaching change.
Turner played for Hutchinson Community College in Kansas, then NAIA hoops in Oklahoma and began his coaching career at JUCOs in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas as well as back at HutchCC. Turner also coached at Cowley College in Arkansas City. His father, Ken, was an assistant to Dana Altman at Kansas State and then worked for Randy Ayers at Ohio State before he died of a heart attack while jogging in 1994.
K.T. rounds out Calipari’s coaching staff, which he took extra steps to solidify by giving assistant Chin Coleman a significant raise, per sources.