MOUNT PLEASANT, Mich. – Tony Barbee, the Associate to the Head Coach for the University of Kentucky men’s basketball team, has left the program to become the next Head Coach for Central Michigan University.
The 2020-21 season marked Barbee’s seventh year in the Wildcats’ program. When he joined at the start of the 2014 season, Barbee served as the special assistant to the head coach before going on to serve the next five seasons as an assistant under head coach John Calipari. His one and only year as the associate to the head coach was the 2020-21 season, in which the Wildcats finished 9-16.
He is set to replace former Chippewas head coach Keno Davis, who served as the leader of the men’s basketball program for nine seasons. Davis was fired on April 5th, after his team finished 7-16 overall in the 2020-21 campaign. He finished with a record of 142-143 overall and 62-94 in Mid-American Conference with the program, getting to one MAC championship game in 2015. CMU made no NCAA Tournament appearances during his tenure, but made one NIT in 2015, a CIT in 2016 and 2018 and a CBI in 2019 under Davis’ leadership.
Barbee has held two previous head coaching jobs prior to his hiring at CMU. He led the UTEP program from 2006-2010, finishing with an 82-52 record, including two CBI appearances in 2008 and was the runner up of the tournament in 2009. The Miners also made one NCAA Tournament appearance in 2010, earning a 12-seed, before falling to 5-seeded Butler in the first round, 77-59.
Barbee was also the head coach of Auburn from 2010-2014, amassing a 49-75 record during his with the Tigers. They did not make any postseason tournaments while under his leadership.
The 20th head coach in CMU’s history, Barbee played for John Calipari at UMass from 1989-1993. After playing, he came onto the staff as a Graduate Assistant in 1995 before leaving in 1998 to become an assistant at Wyoming. He then returned to UMass for a year before joining Calipari’s new staff at Memphis
While serving in staff roles at Kentucky, Barbee helped land two top recruiting classes, in 2015 and 2020. He is credited with helping recruit Tyrese Maxey, Keion Brooks Jr., Terrance Clarke and Nolan Hickman, among others.
This was first reported by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports, and later confirmed by John Rothstein of CBS. An announcement should be coming in the near future.
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