Photo Credit: wacotrib.com
A lot of Kentucky’s brand new coaching staff has been falling into place over the last few days, with another major hire coming this morning.
According to Matt Norlander of CBS Sports, Mark Pope has added Baylor’s top assistant coach, Alvin Brooks III, to its 2024-25 staff.
On Monday, two of Pope's assistant coaches were officially announced by the University of Kentucky, being the two in Cody Fueger and Jason Hart during his first season at the helm. If you have been following the coaching carousel drama since early April then you will remember when Mitch Barnhart went after Baylor head coach, Scott Drew. Well, it looks like Kentucky will have a Baylor coach on their staff come next season after all.
Brooks is a forty-four year old Assistant Coach who has spent the last eight seasons of his coaching career under Scott Drew at Baylor. Before that, he held other assistant coaching positions at Arkansas Fort-Smith, Midland, Bradley, Sam Houston State, and Kansas State. He has been in the coaching game for over twenty years, dating back to 2004.
Alvin Brooks has had a fair amount of success in his coaching career throughout his stops, winning three championships (two in NJCAA and one NCAA) on teams that he has been a major part of. The two junior college championships came in back-to-back years in 2006 and 2007. The one in 2006 was with Arkansas Fort-Smith, and the second one was with Midland in 2007. He was a crucial part of Baylor's championship run in 2021 as well.
Between Hart and Brooks who have numerous connections, they should have the recruiting aspect covered. Alvin has been the lead recruiter on many players in Waco, helping build that program under Scott Drew. This in fact is another homerun hire for Mark Pope. On top of that, he has a ton of experience and will add another level of leadership to the men’s basketball staff.
One thing to note, Brooks also has some ties to the Kentucky Basketball program. Back in 2007-09, Brooks' father, Alvin Brooks II, was the Director of Basketball Operations at Kentucky under then head coach Billy Gillispie.