When reached by phone yesterday, Orlando Antigua was in Pittsburgh, selling an old house. In the next few weeks, he’ll probably look into buying another one in Lexington. Then, there’s the matter of breaking a rental lease in Memphis, as well.
Such is life for an assistant coach, especially one who is entrenched in the year’s biggest hire.
Antigua, a Bronx native who left Pitt — his alma mater — to work with John Calipari in Memphis this season, will join Calipari, The Post has learned, as an assistant at Kentucky.
“It’s been a crazy few days, no question,” he said. “I feel blessed to be where I am. It’s a hectic time, but we’re just looking forward to seeing what we can do at Kentucky.”
Antigua, an aggressive recruiter with both the Panthers and Tigers, will surely have similar success with the Wildcats. During Final Four week, though, it’s a dead period for recruiting, so he has a few days to game-plan.
“It’s going to be interesting out there, representing Kentucky,” he said. “We’ll have to take a look at the holes we need to fill, and get to work.”
While Antigua was dealing with all matters real estate, his boss was holding press conferences in both Lexington and Memphis yesterday.
“Kentucky is just one of those jobs I would have left for,” Calipari said in front of his Memphis home. “There were many more jobs I could have left for. And I stayed. And that was the right thing then. Now, I hope this is the right thing.”
Calipari accepted Kentucky’s eight-year, $31.65 million offer Tuesday after a two-day tug-of-war between the schools. Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson rallied together some influential boosters to produce a similar package, but the allure of Kentucky Basketball won out.
“If I stayed at Memphis,” Calipari said, “I would have made more money here than at Kentucky.”
Instead, Johnson will have to spend that money — most likely a much smaller sum — on someone else.
“Our intention was to keep [Calipari] here. Our boosters stepped up and did everything possible. I will miss him,” Johnson said. “It’s time to move on. This is a great job. I firmly believe that. My job is to get the best coach possible. That’s what I intend to do. I have a list. If you’re a good athletic director, you better have a list. Time is of the essence.”
Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl could be one on that list.
Antigua, 36, who graduated from St. Raymond’s High in The Bronx, began his college coaching career as the Director of Basketball Operations at Pitt in 2003.
“Here’s a guy,” Calipari said, “who comes from great programs. Not good programs. Great programs. I had as good a staff as there was in the country my entire time at Memphis and would expect that to be the same.”
tsullivan@nypost.com
