Tennessee basketball officially announced the hiring of veteran assistant coach Steve McClain on Tuesday morning.
McClain comes to Tennessee after spending the last three years on Rodney Terry’s staff at Texas and brings multiple stints of head coaching experience to Tennessee.
“I want to thank coach Barnes for the opportunity to join such a fantastic basketball program,” McClain said in a statement. “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 spent five seasons as the head coach at Illinois-Chicago from 2015-20, inheriting a poor program and elevating them to the middle of the pack in the Horizon League. The Iowa native also spent nine years as the head coach at Wyoming from 1998-07. McClain twice won the Mountain West Regular-Season Championship at Wyoming and led the Cowboys to the 2002 NCAA Tournament.
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Barnes and McClain have never worked for each other but there are a pair noticeable ties between the two. First, McClain worked for Terry, a longtime Barnes’ assistant at Texas. Second, former Tennessee assistant coach Rod Clark worked for McClain at UIC
“Steve is a veteran coach who has accomplished so much over four-plus decades,” Barnes said. “It was an easy decision to seize the chance to hire him here at Tennessee and we’re happy to have him. 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.”
The move was unexpected because Tennessee did not have an open assistant coaching spot when it hired McClain.
Assistant coach Lucas Campbell moving to a Director of Player Personnel/Recruiting Coordinator role opened up the spot for McClain. Campbell will continue to play a major role in Tennessee’s high school and transfer portal recruiting, particularly in evaluation.
The move is an additional shakeup to Rick Barnes’ staff this offseason. Assistant coach Rod Clark left for an assistant job at Indiana earlier this offseason with Tennessee tabbing Amorrow Morgan, who spent the last two seasons at Cal, as Clark’s replacement.
