Kentucky adds Nick Robinson as director of operations, Randy Towner as strength coach

Mark Pope said he’d circle back to his coaching staff after wrapping up the bulk of the Kentucky roster, Jaxson Robinson being the cherry on top of a strong 12-man group added following the draft withdrawal deadline last week. He had four assistant coaches signed on for 2024-25 in Alvin Brooks III, Cody Fueger, Jason Hart and Mark Fox, but a very limited support staff up to this point.

That changed Monday when Pope announced two new additions with Nick Robinson joining as director of operations and Randy Towner coming as head strength coach. The former comes from BYU after serving as an assistant coach under Pope from 2019-2024 while the latter was previously with the Milwaukee Bucks.

“Nick Robinson has worked in college basketball in every capacity from being a special assistant to the head coach to the head coach himself,” Pope said. “He’s had incredible success, worked in every area of the country, has a great track record and an incredible future in front of him. Along with being a terrific coach, he was a great player in his own right, hitting one of the most famous shots in the history of the Pac-12. As a Stanford grad, he’s incredibly intelligent and has boundless energy and intensity. Nick is meticulously organized and extremely passionate about building a high-level program. We’re happy to have him on staff.”

“What a privilege to be joining the Kentucky basketball family,” Robinson said. “I’m grateful to Mitch Barnhart and Coach Pope for the opportunity to work with incredible people who strive for excellence in every aspect of the program. The best fans in the country, my family and I are excited to represent BBN and our amazing players.”

Robinson was previously an assistant coach at Seattle from 2017-19 and the head coach at Southern Utah from 2012-16. Before that, he was at LSU for three seasons as an assistant coach, director of basketball operations and executive assistant to the head coach.

As for Towner, he comes to Kentucky from the Bucks, working in Milwaukee from 2022-24.

“Randy Towner is one of the elite strength and conditioning coaches in all of basketball,” Pope said. “He spent time in the college ranks before moving on to one of the best staffs in the NBA with the Milwaukee Bucks. Our guys are blessed to have him here. He has a ton of juice, a wealth of expertise and will embrace what Kentucky basketball is all about.”

Prior to his time with the Bucks, he also worked at UTSA, Utah, UAB and Utah Valley with Pope.

“I could not be more excited to join Coach Pope’s staff again,” Towner said. “We had a great experience working together at Utah Valley and I’m excited for the chance to work with him again here at Kentucky. We want to step in and be the best performance staff in the country and help this program win a national championship. We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us, but we are up for the challenge.”

He is a certified strength and conditioning specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NCSA) and a specialist in functional range conditioning movement, performance enhancement and corrective exercise.