Alvin Brooks III was right there with the rest of us refreshing our social media feeds the week after the Final Four, trying to figure out what in the world was going on with Kentucky basketball. He was the associate head coach under Scott Drew at Baylor, but he knew, like most of us, that John Calipari‘s move to Arkansas meant the dominoes were falling — and he might be one of them.
At the time, though, he expected that to be as Drew’s right-hand man in Lexington after manning the same role in Waco. Never in a million years did he dream it’d be for Mark Pope.
“It was a huge moment of uncertainty,” Brooks told KSR on the Sources Say Podcast. “I think in college basketball, you want to — the more stability you have, the better for your family. So the moment it was announced that Coach Cal was going to Arkansas, I remember going to my wife and saying, ‘Uh-oh, something may happen.’ So it was a lot of uncertainty.”
Drew’s relationship with Mitch Barnhart dating back to their time together in the 2021 NCAA Tournament bubble in Indianapolis led most to correctly believe that would be the Kentucky AD’s first call once Coach Cal packed his bags and left for Fayetteville. Brooks didn’t talk much with the Baylor head coach at the time, opting to give him the space he deserved to make the best decision for him and his family.
He had to keep working, but he didn’t exactly know what logo he’d be wearing in the coming hours, let alone the following 2024-25 college basketball season. That’s why he told recruits to keep their phone ringer on be prepared to change their contact photo for Brooks from a green polo to blue.
All he could do was wait on Drew to let him know his next move.
“Obviously, out of respect for Coach Drew, as a staff, we kind of gave him his space. But to be transparent, I remember calling recruits and telling them, ‘Hey, I’ll be calling you back tomorrow. I don’t know if it’ll be me saying, ‘Hey, this is Coach Brooks from Baylor,’ or me saying, ‘Hey, this is Coach Brooks from Kentucky.’ So it was pretty — those 24 hours were kind of uncertain,” Brooks told KSR. “Coach Drew and his family, we kind of gave him space and we didn’t know much. To be honest, I was following everything that y’all were putting on Twitter to kind of see what was going on.”
Drew would ultimately turn down the job after he and his wife visited Lexington, opening the door for Barnhart to not make a move on Dan Hurley, Billy Donovan or Nate Oats or any of the other fan-favorite options at the time, but rather BYU’s Mark Pope — the old fan-favorite as the captain of the 1996 national championship team.
Then came that call, Pope asking Brooks if he was still interested in continuing his career at Kentucky as his right-hand man. The veteran assistant, who has won championships at the Division I and JUCO levels, visited Lexington himself to determine a potential fit for his wife and two sons.
Unlike Drew, he did decide to take the leap of faith. And it didn’t take long for him to get used to wearing Kentucky across his chest as the associate head coach for the winningest program in college basketball history.
“Yes, it set in a long time ago,” Brooks told KSR. “I’m a coach’s son, so I’ve kind of been around it my entire life. My biggest thing was my family, making sure that they were comfortable. I can adjust because I’m around the staff and around players, so I can adjust a lot faster than my family can. So they were great, they had a great year. I think now we’re all adjusted.”
One of the key differences between life in Waco and Lexington? Well, us, actually.
“I had my welcome-to-Kentucky moment when I was in Indianapolis and I was just going to watch somebody play (at a Nike EYBL event),” Brooks told KSR. “And then I turn around and you’re walking right behind me. I was like, ‘Jack, where you going?’ And you said, ‘I’m following you!’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is different.’ I used to just go watch people and try to find sleepers. I can no longer do that because it’s going to be reported [laughs].”
He’s in a different conference with a bigger platform and stronger spotlight, but his approach as college basketball’s Great White Shark remains the same. Like he did at Baylor, it’s his job to bring in championship-level talent that represents the program well.
Brooks thought the first group in Lexington did just that, led by the likes of Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Amari Williams, Koby Brea, Andrew Carr and Ansley Almonor. They not only won at a high level, but they also loved each other and their respective opportunities as Wildcats. That was special.
“The goal is to win a national championship at the end of the day, but love wins. I have a great friend of mine, Amir Abdur-Rahim, who just passed away. He was the head coach of South Florida, and he had an interview after a game where he said, ‘Love wins.’ The team last year really loved each other. I think if you look back at what they accomplished with zero points and zero minutes coming back, they did some things that have never been done before.
“To reach the Sweet 16 and the injuries that we had, and for them to battle the injuries and still perform the way they performed? I just — I love the fact that we had that group to go to battle for us every night.”
The dominoes fell the right way for Coach Brooks to find his new home.
