Mark Pope, the new coach of the Kentucky Wildcats, is now working with a complete staff. According to information obtained by CatsPause.com, Pope has filled the fifth and final job on his crew by hiring Mikhail McLean, who was formerly employed by Lamar. In addition, Scott Padgett, a former Wildcat who won the national championship in 1998, was involved in the competition for the role.
McLean, who has served as an assistant coach at Lamar for the past four seasons, is joining a team that also includes associate head coach Alvin Brooks III from Baylor, former USC assistant Jason Hart of the G League Ignite, former BYU assistant Cody Fueger, and former Nevada and Georgia head coach Mark Fox. McLean will be joining the staff at the University of Kentucky. It was also Pope who appointed Nick Robinson, a former assistant coach at BYU, to the position of director of basketball operations.
McLean played college basketball at Houston, where he scored 2.4 points and grabbed 1.8 rebounds per game over the course of five seasons with the Cougars. During his time with the Cougars, he was coached by both James Dickey and Kelvin Sampson. McLean was hired as an assistant at Lamar four years ago by Alvin Brooks, who serves as the father of Alvin Brooks III, who is also an assistant in the United Kingdom and a previous assistant in Houston.
McLean, who was born and raised in the Bahamas, served as an assistant coach for the Houston Bulls squad that made it all the way to the Final Four in the 2020-21 season.
After losing all 13 scholarship players from last season’s roster to graduation, the NBA Draft or the transfer portal, Pope’s inaugural 9-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 4 nationally by 247Sports and features No. 23 Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), No. 34 Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), No. 36 Jaxson Robinson, No. 48 Lamont Butler (San Diego State), No. 71 Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), No. 88 Amari Williams (Drexel), No. 91 Koby Brea (Dayton), No. 126 Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia), and No. 319 Ansley Almonor (Fairleigh Dickinson).
Pope has also signed former BYU signee Collin Chandler, who is currently serving a two-year Mormon mission; Kentucky Mr. Basketball, the state’s all-time leading scorer and a four-star guard Travis Perry from Lyon County, which won the state championship; and Harlan County’s four-star and former South Carolina signee Trent Noah, which brings the total number of scholarship players for the Wildcats to twelve.
Each of us has one task, and that is to acquire the ninth position. Everywhere I look, I can’t help but notice the number nine. “That is the only thing that I can see,” Pope stated. To put it simply, we are quite obsessed with that, and we are going to pursue it with everything that we might have. That is the norm in this position.”
