Kellogg to be new men's basketball coach at UMass

Derek Kellogg will be introduced tomorrow as the new basketball coach at UMass, replacing Travis Ford who left last week for Oklahoma State.

The search took slightly less than a week and a quick whirlwind tour to see if there were candidates out there they might have missed. But when the final decision was made this afternoon, University of Massachusetts athletic director John McCutcheon decided that it was time to bring home a coach who had literally grown up in the UMass circle.

For Kellogg, it will be a true homecoming. Growing up in Springfield and playing for four years at UMass under former Minutemen coach John Calipari, the 34-year old Kellogg has been waiting for the chance to come home for the past eight seasons as he served as an assistant on Calipari's staff at Memphis.

When Calipari came to Memphis eight seasons ago, Kellogg and Tony Barbee, who also played for Calipari at UMass were part of the inner circle of assistants who wanted to become head coaches and were serving their apprenticeship under Calipari.

Barbee left two years ago to take the head job at UTEP. This year Memphis assistant Chuck Martin was the first Calipari assistant to leave, taking the head job at Marist last week.

Kellogg's duties with Memphis included scouting and recruiting, two talents which Kellogg will need if the Minutemen expect to maintain the upward curve they have taken, finishing this season with a 25-11 record which ended with a loss to Ohio State in the NIT championship game.

For Kellogg, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at UMass in the 1996-97 season, it was the end of road trip which lasted 11 seasons.

Mark Blaudschun can be reached at blaudschun@globe.com.