University of Tennessee head men’s basketball coach Rick Barnes announced Tuesday the hiring of Steve McClain as an assistant coach.
McClain brings 43 years of college coaching experience to Rocky Top, including 31 at the Division I level, 13 with Power Five programs. He has been a head coach for 17 years, including 14 with Division I teams.
“Steve is a veteran coach who has accomplished so much over four-plus decades. It was an easy decision to seize the chance to hire him here at Tennessee and we’re happy to have him,” Barnes said. “His experience, coaching acumen and care for his players will be invaluable. I am confident Steve will give his all for Tennessee on a daily basis and that our program will benefit from his passion.”
Most recently, McClain worked at the University of Texas the past three seasons, 2022-25, the first as special assistant to the head coach and the latter two as an assistant coach. The Longhorns amassed a 69-38 (.645) record and made the NCAA Tournament each year, including advancing to the Elite Eight in 2022-23.
During that same 2022-23 campaign, McClain aided the Longhorns to the Big 12 Tournament title and a No. 5 finish in the AP Poll to tie the program record. Texas won 10 games over AP top-25 foes, a program best, and finished 29-9 overall, good for its third-most victories ever. He helped tutor Marcus Carr to First Team All-Big 12 honors, the first such nod for a Longhorn in seven years, while Sir’Jabari Rice claimed Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year plaudits.
Before going to Texas, McClain spent two years, 2020-22, at Georgia. During his first season, he coached SEC assist leader Sahvir Wheeler and future NBA draftee Toumani Camara.
“I want to thank coach Barnes for the opportunity to join such a fantastic basketball program,” McClain said. “I am so excited for the chance to work for a Hall of Famer and can’t wait to be alongside the excellent staff already in place. Tennessee is one of the premier athletic departments in the country and it’s truly an honor to be a Volunteer.”
McClain served as the head coach at UIC for five seasons, 2015-20. Inheriting a program that won five games his first year, McClain led the team to 16-plus wins four years in a row, the only time the program has done that at the Division I level. After making the CBI semifinals in 2016-17, UIC was the CIT runner-up during a 2017-18 campaign in which it reached 20 wins for the first time in 14 years (2003-04).
The Flames earned three straight top-five Horizon League finishes to cap McClain’s tenure, including a third-place spot in 2017-18. McClain led UIC to program single-season records in points (2,749 in 2016-17), 3-point field goals made (303 in 2018-19), rebounds (1,426 in 2016-17), assists (524 in 2016-17) and blocks (242 in 2017-18). He coached the 2015-16 Horizon League Freshman of the Year (Dikembe Dixon), the 2016-17 and 2017-18 Horizon League Defensive Player of the Year (Tai Odiase) and the 2017-18 Horizon League Sixth Man of the Year (Godwin Boahen).
From 2010-15, McClain spent five years on staff at Indiana, the first two as an assistant and the latter two as associate head coach. He helped the Hoosiers post a 105-75 (.583) record and earn a trio of NCAA Tournament berths, including trips to the Sweet 16 in both 2011-12 and 2012-13. The latter year, Indiana went 29-7 (14-4 B1G), won the outright Big Ten regular season crown and claimed a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
McClain helped bring two top-10 recruiting classes to Bloomington, Ind., and tutored three top-10 NBA Draft choices in Victor Oladipo (No. 2 in 2013), Cody Zeller (No. 4 in 2013) and Noah Vonleh (No. 9 in 2014). Oladipo (first team) and Zeller (second team) were both consensus All-Americans in 2012-13, with Oladipo winning The Sporting News National Player of the Year plaudits.
For three seasons, 2007-10, McClain worked at Colorado, the first as an assistant and the next two as the associate head coach. Taking over a program that won just seven games before he and the rest of the staff arrived, McClain pushed the Buffaloes all the way to a 15-win campaign in his third season. He also helped tutor 2009-10 Big 12 Freshman of the Year Alec Burks, the No. 12 selection in the 2011 NBA Draft.
McClain got his first Division I head coaching job at Wyoming, where he spent nine seasons, 1998-2007. He led the Cowboys to a 157-115 (.577) record and a pair of Mountain West regular season championships (2000-01 and 2001-02), with the second—a campaign in which he won Mountain West Coach of the Year—the first outright crown for the program in 20 years.
Wyoming reached the NCAA Round of 32 in 2001-02 after upsetting sixth-seeded Gonzaga in the opening round. The Cowboys also made the NIT in 1998-99, 2000-01 and 2002-03 under the leadership of McClain, who led the team to 17-plus victories six times and became the second coach in program history to register three straight 20-win campaigns.
McClain’s first Division I opportunity came at TCU, where he worked from 1994-98. After the program won seven games before he and the new staff arrived, the Horned Frogs went 81-44 during his four years there. TCU went 27-6 in 1997-98, won the WAC regular season title with a perfect 14-0 record and reached the NCAA Tournament. That came following a 22-13 campaign in 1996-97 that featured a spot in the second round of the NIT.
From 1991-94, McClain was the head coach at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. He led the program to a dazzling 91-16 (.850) record, including a 27-9 ledger in KJCCC league play, with 27-plus victories and an NJCAA Tournament bid each year. He concluded his tenure by guiding the Blue Dragons to a 35-4 record and a national championship. The team averaged 90 points per game and McClain won NJCAA and NABC-Kodak National Coach of the Year.
Preceding his run as head coach, McClain was an assistant at Hutchinson for five years, 1986-91, a tenure during which he claimed his first national title. The Blue Dragons won the NJCAA crown in 1987-88.
McClain worked as an assistant coach at Independence Community College in Kansas in 1985-86 after serving as an assistant coach at Sioux Empire Junior College in Iowa in 1984-85. He got his start as an undergraduate student assistant at Chadron State, a Division II school in Nebraska, from 1982-84.
A native of Orient, Iowa, McClain graduated from Chadron State in 1984 with a bachelor’s degree in health.
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