LEXINGTON — Kentucky basketball once targeted Baylor’s Scott Drew as its new coach. While Drew remains in Waco, Texas, the Wildcats reportedly still will have a former Baylor coach on the bench next season.
New UK coach Mark Pope hired Alvin Brooks III as an assistant Wednesday, according to multiple reports.
Brooks, an associate head coach under Drew, spent the past eight seasons on the Bears’ staff. Brooks joins Cody Fueger (one of Pope’s assistants at BYU) and Jason Hart (a Syracuse star and former coach of the NBA G League Ignite squad) on Kentucky’s first-year staff.
That’s not Brooks’ only connection with the Wildcats, either. His father, Alvin Brooks, was UK’s director of basketball operations during former coach Billy Gillispie’s two-season tenure in Lexington; the elder Brooks now is the head coach at Lamar.
The younger Brooks is regarded as an ace recruiter. Per 247Sports’ all-time recruiting rankings, which date back to 2000, Brooks is cited as the primary recruiter for three of the Bears’ top-five signees ever: No. 1 VJ Edgecombe, No. 4 Keyonte George and No. 5 Ja’Kobe Walter.
Edgecombe, the No. 4 overall player in the 2024 class in the 247Sports Composite rankings, picked Baylor over Kentucky and fellow recruiting powerhouse Duke.
Edgecombe, George and Walter all were consensus five-star prospects in their respective classes.
But the Bears’ success with Brooks isn’t limited to the recruiting trail.
During his time on the staff, Baylor has gone 194-72 overall (104-39 in Big 12 play), including a 12-5 mark in the NCAA Tournament.
