Goodnews: Kentucky sign in a blockbuster deal to land in an assistant to boost Mark pope’s ….. read more.

Mark Pope had to check boxes as he put together Kentucky basketball’s squad for his debut campaign. Pope had to assemble a roster, pretty much from the ground up, because every scholarship player from the UK’s 2023–24 squad had left. Pope first had to get the support of the Kentucky faithful, who, at least on social media, didn’t seem all that enthusiastic about his hire.

In addition, Pope had to put together a coaching staff that could support him when he came off the bench, maybe signaling years of success to come. Pope’s greatest impact as Kentucky’s head coach has come from that final component. Alvin Brooks III joined Kentucky in late April and was appointed assistant head coach under Pope.

The biggest offseason addition for Pope is Brooks III, who has been an assistant coach at Baylor since April 2016. The 44-year-old Brooks III has a track record of success and is a skilled recruiter; the two are related. Bruce Weber, who added Brooks III to his Kansas State coaching staff in April 2012, told the Herald-Leader, “(When) Alvin talks, things happen.” Excellent rapport builder with the players. In addition to hiring them, we also kept them in our program. Additionally, he was skilled at spotting talent.

Despite being a non-traditional basketball school, Brooks III was a part of a team at Baylor that won the 2021 national championship and rose to prominence as a national recruiter. During Brooks III’s tenure, Baylor had recruiting classes that, according to 247Sports, were rated 15th in 2021, 12th in 2023, and fifth in 2024. The individual players that Brooks III brought to Waco in his capacity as the head recruiter were even more astounding.

Guards Keyonte George (2022 class, consensus five-star prospect, and 2023 first-round pick) and Ja’Kobe Walter (2023 class, consensus five-star prospect, and projected lottery pick in this year’s NBA draft) were included in this group.

The Bears signed the highest-rated class in program history in 2021 thanks in part to Brooks III. ESPN placed Baylor’s three-person class—Love, Kendall Brown, and Jeremy Sochan—as the fourth best in the country. In addition, Brooks III assisted the Bears in acquiring a true gem in shooting guard VJ Edgecombe, a McDonald’s All-American and a consensus five-star backcourt prospect who chose Baylor from a final shortlist that also included Duke and Kentucky.

The majority of Brooks III’s significant recruiting successes have involved guards, a position group that former UK head coach John Calipari was closely associated with. During the last three recruiting cycles at Baylor, Brooks III has been the main recruiter for a five-star guard with great success.

By the time the 2024–25 UK basketball season starts, two of those guards (George and Walter) will have converted their one-and-done collegiate careers into NBA first-round draft selections. Additionally, if Walter is chosen in the first round of the NBA draft this summer, it might be Baylor’s fourth consecutive season with a top-16 lottery choice. Edgecombe is already expected to be selected in the lottery in the 2025 NBA draft, having been listed by 247Sports Composite as the No. 4 overall prospect in the 2024 class.

“He performed an excellent job of hiring. He doesn’t make many gestures. When it comes to Brooks III, Weber said, “He’s not one of those guys that’s going to go dance in the stands or brag about himself or anything like that, but he’s a guy that just quietly gets his job done.” “He was always known to me as ‘The Quiet Force.'”

Something that’s clear from the impressive lineup of guards that Brooks III recently recruited to Baylor? He’s effectively leveraging his Texas recruitment contacts. Love (from San Antonio), George (from Lewisville), and Walter (from McKinney) all completed their high school educations outside of Texas; yet, Houston native Brooks was able to use his connections in the Lone Star State to attract those players to Baylor. Brooks III’s father, Alvin Brooks Jr., first discouraged him from becoming a coach. Brooks III attended Idaho State and Midland College, both in West Texas.

“I never went to the gym with Al to work him out. We never went to see a movie together. To to Brooks Jr., “I just kind of let him enjoy himself,” the Herald-Leader said. “Making sure he was a good student and a good person was more important to me.” The older Brooks also has some coaching experience: For almost fifty years, Alvin Brooks Jr. has participated in collegiate basketball. At Lamar, Houston, Texas Tech, North Texas, Texas-El Paso, and Texas A&M, he served as an assistant coach.

Formerly the first African-American head coach in Houston’s history, Brooks Jr. was the head coach there from the mid-1990s until taking the helm at Lamar. Brooks Jr. continued by saying that his kid was initially exposed to the difficulties of the job at a young age by watching his father work as a college coach. With a degree in finance and a master’s in athletics administration, Brooks Jr. stated of his son, “the plan was for him to be in the business sector the whole time.”

“Coaching was never his goal. He should never have been a coach. He occasionally stayed with me in the workplace until two in the morning to watch me and my employees at work. That doesn’t guarantee success every time.

However, Brooks III called his father and declared his desire to become a coach after realizing he didn’t want to work in finance or athletics administration. Brooks III was hooked after his first year of coaching, even with the extra labor that comes with cutting your teeth at the junior college level (such working two jobs at the campus rec facility). Brooks Jr. remarked, “I could tell he had a knack for it.”

When Brooks III won the 2006 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) championship with Arkansas Fort-Smith and the 2007 NJCAA title with Midland College, the winning started almost immediately. Before getting his first significant league opportunity with Weber at Kansas State, Brooks III worked his way up the coaching ladder, stopping at Sam Houston State, Midland, Arkansas-Fort Smith, Bradley, and Kansas State. Weber, who is currently a TV commentator for the Big Ten Network and was the head coach at Southern Illinois and Illinois, said in an interview with the Herald-Leader that he rarely hired anybody who weren’t part of “our basketball family.”

But he needed someone who was connected to Texas recruiting. And when he recruited in that area, Brooks III instantly established his credentials. “We have someone who the coaches liked, respected, and knew would do it the right way when he would go in on a school,” Weber stated. During Brooks’ four years as an assistant coach at Kansas State, he was part of the team that year when the Wildcats captured the Big 12 Conference regular season championship for the first time ever.

Weber was contacted by Kentucky program members who were doing background checks on Brooks III. Furthermore, Weber stated that he didn’t need to embellish while talking about his previous assistant. “His goal is to improve as a coach,” Weber stated. Some men believe they have arrived at a young age. Al has taken one step toward improving himself: he has acknowledged the need to always learn, develop, and improve.

BROOKS III WAS VIEWED AS A RELATIONSHIP BUILDER FROM AN EARLY AGE

Brooks Jr. has some special knowledge about his son’s most recent position. When Billy Gillispie was the Wildcats’ head coach from 2007 to 2009, the older Brooks served as UK’s director of basketball operations. “In 20 years, this guy has won three national titles. About his son, Brooks Jr. remarked, “He has gotten better and better every year as a coach.” “… He has the new-age (mindset) where analytics come naturally to him, but he still follows my old school ways.” Through both the usual high school recruiting channels and the NCAA transfer site, Brooks III’s influence on UK hoops has already been felt.

During his time at Baylor, Brooks III, one of the three assistant coaches from the UK team allowed to travel and hire, faced a number of new Wildcats. In the previous season, former Oklahoma State big Brandon Garrison scored 20 points against Baylor while shooting a perfect 7 for 7 from the field. During a fierce 24-minute stretch against the Bears, former Oklahoma guard Otega Oweh finished with nine points and four rebounds. Ex-BYU guard Jaxson Robinson, one of the Wildcats’ final transfer portal targets, scored in double digits twice against Baylor in the previous campaign.

Since Brooks III joined Kentucky, a number of elite recruits have already mentioned speaking with him at the high school level. This weekend, when college coaches are allowed to attend the third session of the Nike EYBL circuit in Indianapolis, those relationships will grow and strengthen. “Al has always been a people person, a connector to people,” Brooks Jr. remarked, giving the instance of Brooks III’s friendships he formed in Houston’s affluent West End schools as well as inner-city schools.

He’s always cultivated relationships and done so in an authentic manner. In a sincere manner, not in a commercial manner. Even at the top level, he has been able to sustain that. The final word on all of this? For Pope, the addition of Brooks III to Lexington marks a significant coup as he begins his term as Kentucky’s coach.

Weber remarked of Brooks III, “It just seems like he’s had pretty good success everywhere he goes.” He has a talent for spotting players and building strong bonds with them. Al is first and foremost a wonderful person; he is also an excellent coach, a decent guy in relationships, a terrific teammate, and a valuable employee. I have a strong feeling that he will benefit Kentucky.