Mark Pope makes another hire. He’ll bring one of the country’s top assistants to Kentucky.

The fourth member of Mark Pope’s initial coaching staff at the University of Kentucky is now official, and it’s a major addition to the Wildcats’ men’s basketball program.

Alvin Brooks III, a longtime assistant at Baylor, was officially announced as the newest hire at UK on Thursday afternoon, joining a staff that already included Cody Fueger, Jason Hart and Mark Fox as Pope puts together a formidable staff of coaches for his first season in charge of the Cats.

Brooks, 44, has spent the past eight seasons at Baylor under head coach Scott Drew, helping lead the Bears to the 2021 NCAA championship while cementing the program’s status as a perennial national contender and establishing himself as one of the country’s top recruiters.

Beginning his coaching career at the junior college level 20 years ago, Brooks won NJCAA titles at Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2006 and Midland (Texas) in 2007 before landing his first Division I job — at Bradley University — for the 2007-08 season.

He spent three years at Bradley and two at Sam Houston State before joining Bruce Weber’s staff at Kansas State in 2012 and moving to Baylor to work under Drew four seasons later.

Brooks will have the title of associate head coach at Kentucky, where he will join Fueger and Hart as the third assistant permitted to engage in off-campus recruiting activities on behalf of the program.

“Alvin Brooks is a national champion coach, three times over,” Pope said in a statement released by UK. “He is one of the most highly regarded tacticians, recruiters and relationship-builders in all of college basketball. He’s been mentored by some of the great coaches of the game, including Bruce Weber and Scott Drew. He and his wife, Tiffany, and their sons AJ and Austin are going to be a big part of Big Blue Nation and help us bring home No. 9.”

Brooks is the son of Lamar head coach Alvin Brooks, who was formerly the head coach at Houston and worked as the director of basketball operations at Kentucky for both seasons of the Billy Gillispie era.

There had been rumblings for several days that Brooks III could be a part of Pope’s first coaching staff at Kentucky, and — when it became clear Wednesday that he was indeed set to join the Wildcats — the development was met with widespread praise from national college basketball analysts.

CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander called the move “a major coup” for Pope, and others noted Brooks’ recruiting prowess. The new Kentucky assistant was listed as Baylor’s lead recruiter for Keyonte George, Ja’Kobe Walter and VJ Edgecombe — all top 10 prospects over each of the past three cycles.

Edgecombe, a major UK recruiting target when John Calipari was the head coach, is the No. 5 overall player in the 2024 class, according to the 247Sports rankings. The 6-foot-5 shooting guard visited Kentucky in October but committed to Baylor in January.

He officially signed with the Bears last week and is expected to remain with that program, even with Brooks now on staff at Kentucky.

With four assistant coaching positions filled, Pope has just one spot left on his staff for the 2024-25 season. That position will ultimately be occupied by someone who will not have off-campus recruiting duties, and no announcement regarding who that fifth coach will be is imminent.

In the meantime, Pope and his existing staff will continue to recruit players for their first season in Lexington, and — with the first evaluation period of the spring just three weeks away — some of that attention will soon turn to high school recruits from the class of 2025 and beyond.

“I am so excited to join Coach Pope and his staff and be a part of the Big Blue Nation,” Brooks said Thursday. “I’m very appreciative of the opportunity to join a storied program, with such a passionate fan base as we chase banners together. My family and I are grateful to Coach Pope and Mitch Barnhart and I can’t wait to get started.”

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