Another former Kentucky men’s basketball player in Riley Welch has been added to the UK staff as a graduate assistant coach for the 2021-22 season.
Welch just concluded a two-year career with the Wildcats and graduated in May with an undergraduate degree in liberal studies. He plans to pursue a Master of Business Administration.
Welch will be involved in all on-court activities including practices, individual workouts and film sessions, while assisting the staff with practice and game-plan preparation.
He appeared in 34 career games as a Division I player split between two years at Kentucky and one at UC Irvine. Welch also played one season at the College of the Desert where he averaged 8.2 points and 5.0 assists per game.
The Littleton, Colorado, native earned Southeastern Conference Academic Honor Roll honors in 2021 and participated in the 2020 SEC Career Tour. He was a two-time Dean’s List honoree at UC Irvine.
Welch is the second former player to join the staff as Brad Calipari will also serve as a graduate assistant coach.
UK’s 2021-22 roster currently features a sixth-year graduate, a fifth-year graduate, a redshirt junior, six juniors, a redshirt sophomore, two sophomores and three freshmen.
Production wise, it will also be among the most prolific returning teams of the John Calipari era. Kentucky will return 42.1% of its minutes, 41.9% of its scoring, 39.0% of the rebounds, 42.4% of the assists and 60.6% of the 3-pointers from a season ago. For comparison, the only two Calipari-coached Kentucky teams that returned more minutes and more points (in terms of percentages) than the 2021-22 team is slated to return were the 2011-12 national championship squad and the 2014-15 Final Four team that started the season 38-0.
Adding the Wildcats’ four transfers to the equation, Kentucky’s current 2021-22 roster includes 13,385 minutes, 5,203 points, 1,917 rebounds, 1,132 assists and 543 total 3-pointers in college basketball production.
Kentucky Men’s Basketball Adds Riley Welch as Graduate Assistant Coach
