Rick Barnes is adding long-time college basketball coach Steve McClain to Tennessee basketball’s coaching staff, GoVols247 confirmed Saturday. On3’s Joe Tipton first reported that Barnes is hiring McClain as an assistant coach.
McClain, who coached on Rodney Terry’s staff at Texas the last three seasons, is the second addition to Barnes’ staff this offseason. Barnes hired Amorrow Morgan from Florida State to fill the vacant spot left behind when Rod Clark took a job at Indiana.
An additional assistant coach position opened because former Tennessee guard Lucas Campbell is transitioning to a Director of Player Personnel and Recruiting Coordinator role. Campbell has been key for the Vols in the player personnel area. This move allows him to further excel in that role and continue to add to the Vols’ recruiting efforts.
McClain was previously the head coach at Wyoming and the University of Illinois at Chicago for a combined 14 seasons. He just completed his second season as an assistant coach at Texas and his third year on the Texas staff. McClain, who has 42 years of coaching experience, served as a special assistant to Terry during the 2022-23 season.
McClain was 233-208 in 14 seasons as a head coach. He worked as an assistant coach under Tom Crean at Georgia the two seasons prior to his time in Austin.
The veteran coach spent five seasons at the University of Illinois at Chicago from 2010-15. The Flames went 76-93 and made two appearances in the College Basketball Invitational, advancing to the CBI semifinals in 2017 and finishing as CBI runners-up in 2018. UIC won 16 or more games in each of McClain’s last four years for just the second time in program history. UIC also advanced to the title game of the Horizon League Tournament in 2020 for the first time since 2004.
McClain spent five seasons with Crean at Indiana. He served as an assistant coach for two years (2010-12) before serving as the associate head coach during the final three seasons.
Prior to his time at Indiana, McClain spent three seasons at Colorado under Jeff Bzdelik. McClain was an assistant coach for one year (2007-08) before working as an associate head coach during his final two seasons (2008-10).
McClain spent nine seasons as the head coach at Wyoming from 1998 to 2007. The Cowboys went 157-115 during his tenure and earned back-to-back Mountain West Conference regular-season championships in 2001 and 2002. The outright title in 2002 marked the program’s first outright league championship in 20 years. McClain led Wyoming to a 22-9 record in 2001-02 and the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament when it upset Gonzaga in the first round. The Cowboys also made three trips to the NIT (1999, 2001 and 2003) during his tenure. McClain is one of only two coaches in Wyoming program history to post three consecutive 20-win seasons.
Prior to his time at Wyoming, McClain was an assistant coach at TCU for four seasons (1994-98) and spent three seasons (1991-94) as the head coach at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College. He began his coaching career as an undergraduate student assistant during his final two years (1982-84) at Chadron State College in Chadron, Neb. Following graduation, he served as an assistant coach at Sioux Empire Junior College in Iowa (1984-85) and Independence Community College in Kansas (1985-86).
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