New UK basketball assistant coach Chin Coleman has a lot of Vince Marrow in him

Chin Coleman (Illinois Athletics Photo)

Remember when Vince Marrow came to Kentucky with coach Mark Stoops and immediately noted that UK was going to recruit at a higher level. One reason he said that would happen is because he knew how to identify who was important in the recruiting process. Marrow talked a lot about figuring out who had the most influence on a recruit. It might be a recruit’s father, mother, girlfriend, other family member, friend or a high school/AAU coach.

New Kentucky basketball assistant coach Chin Coleman reminded a lot of Marrow Tuesday morning when he was on JustTheCats Radio with host Michael Bennett.

Coleman was a proven recruiter at Illinois and with his Chicago ties would seem to be a perfect fit for John Calipari’s staff — and one would think it should be easier to recruit big-time players to UK than it was at Illinois.

But his recruiting philosophy is very similar to Marrow’s.

“It’s our job as assistant coaches and recruiters to find out—what I like to call—who the champion is,” Coleman told Bennett. “Sometimes the champion is the mom and dad. Sometimes the champion is an uncle.

“Sometimes the champion is their high school coach. Sometimes the champion is an AAU coach. Sometimes it’s a combination. It’s our job to navigate that situation and find out who that is.”

That’s a big part of what recruiting is about. Identify the right influencer for the recruit and make sure he or she is a big part of the recruitment.

However, the other part is then closing the deal with the recruit. Marrow has done that for UK football. Will Coleman do it for UK basketball? My guess is he will, especially with Orlando Antigua also now on the staff.