Former Kentucky basketball star and assistant strength coach Scott Padgett has accepted an assistant coaching job at Manhattan for the 2010-11 campaign. Padgett, who joined the UK men’s basketball staff last year, will join Manhattan head coach Barry Rohrssen’s staff.”We would like to welcome Scott and his family to the Manhattan College basketball program,” Rohrssen said in a news release. “Scott has played for some of the best coaches in our profession: Hall of Famer Jerry Sloan, Rick Pitino, Jeff Van Gundy. We feel his experience will help with the development of our post and front court players.”When Padgett joined John Calipari last year, he did so with the intent of one day becoming an assistant head coach and with hopes of becoming a future head coach. Padgett expressed that interest to Calipari and he gave the former UK All-American the launching pad to get that career started with last year’s staff job.”My job as a head coach is to help my assistants get head coaching jobs and to help our entry-level position guys become full-time assistants,” Calipari said in a statement. “When we were able to hire Scott and Tony Delk it was a win-win for our program and for two of our most respected former players. They both wanted to get a start in the coaching profession and we were thrilled to be able to offer them that opportunity.”It didn’t take long for Padgett to get that promotion, as he will get the chance next year as an assistant at Manhattan.”I have always wanted to be a head coach in college, so this is a great first step for me to coach basketball in New York City and learn every aspect of running a program from recruiting, to coaching in practice and the day-to-day operations,” Padgett said in a news release. “I am very excited to start the next chapter of my basketball career.”