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Recently, Kentucky Wildcats assistant coach Tony Barbee was in contention to become the next head coach at Fordham.
However, Fordham ended up hiring Villanova assistant Kyle Neptune. With that, it appeared Barbee once again was left out of the head-coaching cycle.
Now, it appears Barbee is not only still in the running for such a job, he’s also the frontrunner for it. Jeff Goodman reports Barbee is currently the top candidate for the opening at Central Michigan.
Goodman also confirmed an earlier report that Kentucky is expected to hire Illinois’ Orlando Antigua.
Tony Barbee the frontrunner to land Central Michigan head coaching job, source told @Stadium.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 22, 2021
Illinois assistant Orlando Antigua likely to return to Kentucky, source also told @Stadium.
Barbee was set to enter his eighth season at Kentucky, and it would be his second season in his role as associate to the head coach.
It has been rumored for several years now that Barbee would potentially like to make the jump back to the head-coaching ranks, but it’s yet to come to fruition.
After being a head coach twice in his career before coming to Kentucky at UTEP from 2006-2010, and then leaving there to take the reigns of the Auburn Tigers from 2010-2014, it’s no surprise he has that desire.
Barbee was also an assistant to John Calipari in his days at Memphis from 2000-2006 after also being a player under Cal at UMass, which is how he eventually ended up in the Kentucky program.