Adam Himmelsbach: UK hires an old-style people person

LEXINGTON, Ky. – In major college sports, the recruiting process can often be a spectacle. Coaches use various gimmicks to fawn over players, hoping their fawning will stand out from another coach’s fawning. In this social media age, there is so much hey-look-at-this and there are so many different forms of flattery.

And then there is the Kentucky basketball team’s new assistant coach, Barry Rohrssen, who seems to be a throwback to simpler times.

Rohrssen is a 53-year-old Brooklyn native who recently left Pittsburgh to join UK, and he prefers handshakes to Tweets. He prefers conversations to text messages. He prefers eye contact to FaceTime.

“It still gets down to people,” Rohrssen said. “... It gets down to the words that are said, not the way, the medium that it’s been said.”

At his introductory news conference here on Tuesday afternoon, Rohrssen spoke calmly and gently about the importance of building relationships with players. And that seemed appropriate, because most of his answers circled back to important relationships he had formed. As he spoke about those relationships, he choked up.

He became emotional when he talked about his mother making ends meet in a single-parent home in New York. He became emotional when he talked about former Kentucky coach Joe B. Hall, who sent him a handwritten letter inviting him to work at his basketball camp when he was a college student with big dreams and little experience. He became emotional when he talked about UK coach John Calipari, who has now given him his latest greatest chance.

The emotions were real and they certainly gave off the impression that Rohrssen is genuine. And that’s refreshing, because fake often rules the day in college coaching.

“I’m the first one who will tell you, I’ve got a blessed life,” Rohrssen said.

Rohrssen and Calipari met about 30 years ago, when they roomed together as counselors at the prestigious Five-Star basketball camp.

The two stayed in contact, even as their paths diverged. Aside from a five-year stint as Manhattan College’s head coach, Rohrssen has been a career assistant. Calipari, of course, has become one of the most successful coaches in college basketball history.

Calipari reached out to Rohrssen about various openings over the years. But it sounds like his loyalty to other employers led him to stay put. When Rohrssen was in his first stint as an assistant at Pittsburgh, he even had a chance to join coach Ben Howland when he was hired at UCLA, but he chose to stay with the Panthers.

After Orlando Antigua left UK to become the coach at South Florida last month, Calipari called Rohrssen again.

“He’s been very kind,” Rohrssen said of Calipari. “And (I said) I better take it this time. There may come a time he doesn’t ask anymore. I’m sure there’s a long line of people who would want this, and every year the line gets longer.”

In just a few weeks on the recruiting trail, Rohrssen has already noticed how so many top recruits hold the Wildcats in such high regard. Rohrssen knows he will soon sit in the living rooms of more five-star players than he ever has before.

“There’s a lot of interest from the best players in the nation that have Kentucky on their list,” he said, “so it’s a very well-received school and program.”

Even though Rohrssen’s access to elite players might shift a bit, his approach will not. He will focus on relationships and family and creating real bonds, just like he always has.

Adam Himmelsbach can be reached at 502-582-4372 by email ahimmelsbach@courier-journal.com and on Twitter @adamhimmelsbach