UT Arlington is expected to hire Kentucky assistant K.T. Turner as its next head coach, sources told ESPN.
Turner joined John Calipari’s staff last offseason after spending one season at Oklahoma under Porter Moser and one season at Texas under Shaka Smart. Prior to moving to Austin, Turner was an assistant coach at SMU for seven seasons.
He started his coaching career at the junior college level before moving to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Wichita State. Turner also played professionally in Italy for three seasons.
“I knew that when we had an opening, K.T. Turner would be our next guy I’d be calling on,” Calipari said when he hired Turner last spring. “I’ve been very impressed with K.T. for as long as I’ve known him.
“He is from Cincinnati, his father worked for Tony Yates, and he still has ties to the area. He’s an established coach and someone who has a passion for development. He loves spending time in the gym working with kids and helping them continue to push for improvement.
“K.T. has done an excellent job of recruiting Texas, which has always been good to us, and has a terrific ability to connect with young people. He is exactly the coach we were looking for and I’m thrilled to have him join our family.”
Turner replaces Greg Young, who was fired in early February after less than two years in the job. UT Arlington went 11-18 in Young’s first season before going 11-21 this season. The Mavericks were 9-16 when they let go of Young.