Tyler Ulis expected to join John Calipari's staff at Arkansas

After two years on the Kentucky sidelines, Tyler Ulis will be an assistant basketball coach at Arkansas next season under John Calipari, according to KSR.

A longtime fan-favorite in Lexington, Ulis joined Calipari’s staff in Lexington in 2022, where he helped guide the likes of Rob Dillingham, Reed Sheppard, Antonio Reeves and more to success during their time as Wildcats.

Ulis now joins his former colleagues in Chin Coleman and Bruiser Flint in Fayetteville with Calipari, not to mention one of Ulis’ former coach at Kentucky in Kenny Payne.

Fans remember him most fondly for helping lead the 2014-15 Kentucky team to a 38-1 record a trip to the Final Four, where he was a consensus First Team All-American and SEC Player of the Year as a sophomore.

That season, Ulis was also the first Bob Cousy Point Guard of the Year winner in school history. He was also named SEC Player of the Year by both the league’s coaches and the Associated Press, tabbed SEC Defensive Player of the Year by the league’s coaches in addition to All-SEC First Team honors and SEC All-Defensive Team honors.

The 5-foot-9 point guard averaged 17.3 points, 7.0 assists, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 steals per contest in his final season as a Wildcat.

Injuries would cut his career short, and he last played competitive basketball in 2020, suiting up for the Sacramento Kings’ G-League affiliate.

Now, many believe Ulis has the potential to be one of the top up-and-coming young assistants in the country moving into the next stage of his coaching career.

“In practice, he focuses and works with the point guards and talks to them a lot during practice on what they should be seeing and feeling when they’re running the offense,” former UK assistant John Welch said of Ulis — who did not follow Calipari to Arkansas, instead opting to return to the west coast. “Just an unbelievable resource, especially — a lot of times for the smaller guards, he knows exactly what they’re feeling. For Reed, DJ [Wagner], Rob, I just think it’s a great resource for them.”

Welch has over 30 years of coaching experience and working with point guards at both the college or NBA levels. Seeing that type of potential in Ulis, who was a player for Calipari less than a decade ago, is high praise coming from one of the more respected assistants in college basketball in today’s game.