Umass Assistant Coach To Replace Calipari

James “Bruiser” Flint, an assistant coach at the University of Massachusetts, will replace John Calipari as head coach of the Minutemen.

Flint, a soft-spoken man whose mother gave him his nickname when he was a young boy, will be the second black coach of the Minutemen. Ray Wilson, who coached UMass from 1979 to 1981, was the first.

After his 1987 graduation from St. Joseph’s, Flint spent two years at Coppin State in Maryland as assistant coach and assistant athletic director before coming to UMass in 1989.