Recruiting takes sharp-eyed Riverdalian to Kentucky, beyond

Not all of Riverdale’s connections to the NCAA Tournament were severed when Manhattan College fell to Hampton in the first round last week. If you scan the sidelines during any Kentucky Wildcats game, you’ll lay eyes on a familiar face seated just to the left of head coach John Calipari — that of Barry Rohrssen, former Manhattan head coach and Riverdale resident.

Rohrssen, who led Manhattan for five seasons ending in 2011, is now Calipari’s right-hand man and recruiting guru, charged with keeping the nation’s top-ranked college basketball team well-stocked for seasons to come.  

And while life in Lexington is different from Riverdale, Rohrssen, 53, said he has come to love his part-time home as well as the Wildcats’ rabid fan base.

“The passion of Kentucky basketball, not just on campus and in the city of Lexington but statewide, is unbelievable and unmatched,” said Rohrssen, who joined the university last May. “The fans don’t just have great interest, but they have great pride in the program and it is evident everywhere you go.”

After his tenure at Manhattan ended in 2011, Rohrssen spent a season as an assistant coach with the Idaho Stampede, the Portland Trailblazers’ affiliate in the NBA Development League before returning to the University of Pittsburgh as an assistant coach. It was a homecoming of sorts for Rohrssen, who used his recruiting prowess to turn Pitt into a national power during his five-year stint in the Steel City prior to becoming Manhattan’s head coach. Ultimately it was his nationally-acclaimed recruiting skills that led to a phone call last spring from Calipari.

“I was very fortunate to get hired by the Portland Trailblazers after the Manhattan experience,” Rohrssen said. “But circumstance led me back to college basketball, which I have a love for. And to get a call from coach Calipari and the University of Kentucky asking to be a member of that staff, it was kind of like a dream come true.”