Now that Mark Pope is leading the Kentucky Wildcats, he’s got a big month ahead of him in getting the roster and coaching staff filled out.

We know Cody Fueger is following Pope over from BYU to join the Kentucky staff. There’s been buzz this week that Pope was trying to add a big-name assistant to his staff, and it sounds like that was none other than Kenny Payne.

On Thursday, KSR’s Matt Jones revealed that Kentucky made an attempt to get Payne on staff, but that likely won’t happen. Payne is now expected to either land at Arkansas with John Calipari or return to the NBA.

In addition, Jones says that Orlando Antigua wants to stay at Kentucky instead of joining Calipari at Arkansas.

“There’s a lot of chatter, and I can confirm that Orlando wants to stay. That Orlando, he’s still here. He has still been showing up to work in the Craft Center because he’s technically still an assistant coach, unlike a lot of the others who resigned. He hasn’t yet. I don’t know what UK is going to do there.”

Getting Payne would have been a great way for Pope to help keep the Calipari era still connected to this new era for the program. Payne may not be head-coaching material, but he’s a great recruiter with connections that would benefit every program.

As for Antigua, Pope likely has an idea of who he wants on his staff, so it makes sense that he may not have room.

Still, it’s unfortunate for Antigua that he supposedly wants to stay but can’t. It sounds like he doesn’t want to uproot his family and move to Fayetteville.

Here’s to hoping for the best for Coach O.