Darin Minniefield, son of Kentucky basketball great Dirk Minniefield, will serve as graduate assistant

The Kentucky basketball family is welcoming one of the family members of one of the greatest players ever to suit up in Lexington. Darin Minniefield, the son of Kentucky basketball great Dirk Minniefield, will serve as a graduate assistant for the Kentucky men’s basketball team, according to Matt Jones of kentckysportsradio.com.

Check out the announcement below.

Dirk Minniefield’s son Darin will be a Grad Assistant with UK Basketball this year

Very cool pic.twitter.com/chk3g0poTI

— Matt Jones (@KySportsRadio) September 29, 2023

Minniefield is the son of Dirk Minniefield, an All-SEC performer and a 1,000-point scorer for the Wildcats from 1980-1983. Darin Minniefield has also worked with the John Lucas Player Development program and he’s coached with the Houston Defenders AAU program. He’ll help the team in player development on the court and will also help with support to the video coordinators. Darin Minniefield will also be pursuing a degree in sport leadership from Kentucky.

In his playing career, Minniefield was a four-year starter for Our Lady of the Lake University, earning second-team all-conference honors there.

He’s just one of four new additions to the Kentucky basketball coaching staff. He joins Kevin Gallagher, Keenan Gumbs, and Zach Thomas in joining the Wildcat basketball family. Gallagher will be working as an assistant video coordinator. Gumbs will be working as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. Thomas will be working as a graduate assistant.

Kevin Gallagher is very familiar with the Wildcat basketball program. He served as the team’s manager from 2018-2021. He also spent the last two seasons as a graduate assistant in the Kentucky video department. Gallagher will help the coaching staff with scouting different opponents, creating recruiting videos, and helping the team with self-scouting projects.

Zach Thomas is a four-time conference regular season champion. He played his college basketball with the Bucknell Bison for three seasons. During his time with Bucknell, he helped them punch their tickets to the NCAA Tournament twice and poured in more than 1,500 career points. In the last five years, Thomas has played professional basketball in Europe, including Belgium, Italy, Ukraine Poland, Finland, and most recently, Cyprus. He’ll also help with Kentucky’s on-court player development and assist with different projects with video coordinators.

One of the most anticipated matchups this season for Kentucky basketball will be against the Gonzaga Bulldogs, who they faced on Nov. 20th, 2022. This year, they’ll welcome the Bulldogs into Rupp Arena.

Kentucky will open up their 2023 season with a few exhibition contests. The first event will be on Friday, Oct. 13th. It will be Big Blue Madness, an intrasquad scrimmage and other events. It will start at 7:00 PM EST in Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky.