It pays to be on the coaching staff at Kentucky.
Quite literally.
According to numbers released by the university over the weekend, John Calipari’s coaching staff will be making a combined $1.44 million next season. Kenny Payne, the lead recruiter on the Wildcat staff, has a new contract worth $2.1 million over the next three years. Payne is likely the highest-paid assistant coach in the country.
For comparison’s sake, at least 22 head coaches that made last year’s NCAA tournament made less last season than the $700,000 that Payne will average over the course of this contract -- Harvard, BYU, Hampton and Butler did not make the salaries public. That includes Dayton head coach Archie Miller and Davidson’s Bob McKillop.
John Robic will be making $415,000 next season while Tony Barbee, who got promoted from special assistant to Calipari, will be making $375,000, the same amount that former assistant Barry ‘Slice’ Rohrssen was making before he left for the same job at St. John’s.