Steve McClain is joining the Tennessee basketball staff as an assistant coach, a source told Knox News on May 10.
The source spoke on the condition of anonymity because McClain’s hire has not been announced.
McClain had more than four decades of college coaching experience, including multiple stints at the power-conference level. He was on staff at Texas for the past three seasons. He was an assistant coach for the past two seasons.
He is the fifth assistant coach on Rick Barnes’ staff, joining associate head coach Justin Gainey and assistants Gregg Polinsky, Bryan Lentz and Amorrow Morgan. Morgan was hired on May 2 to fill the vacancy created when Rod Clark left for Indiana. Morgan spent two seasons at Cal before he was hired at Florida State then plucked by UT a month later.
Lucas Campbell is jumping into a director of player personnel and recruiting coordinator role with McClain joining the staff. Campbell, who played at UT under Barnes, has held an essential role in building Tennessee’s roster and managing player personnel as part of his duties. He plays a key part in UT’s transfer portal efforts.
Campbell was an assistant coach in the 2024-25 season. He returned to Tennessee as the director of recruiting in June 2022 after a year at ETSU as the director of basketball operations.
McClain, 62, was coach at Illinois-Chicago from 2015-20 and at Wyoming from 1998-2007. McClain won two Mountain West regular-season championships at Wyoming and led the Cowboys to the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
McClain was hired at TCU in 1994 and spent four seasons in Fort Worth as an assistant coach. He was an assistant coach at Colorado from 2007-10. He was on the Indiana staff from 2010-15 and at Georgia from 2020-22.
The Iowa native broke into coaching at Chadron State College in Nebraska in 1982. He worked at the junior college level for a decade before landing his first head coaching job at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas in 1991.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.
