Mikhail McClean signs new two-year contract with Kentucky

The assistant coach on Kentucky’s staff whom Mark Pope describes as a rising star is staying put for at least a little while longer. Mikhail McLean signed a new deal with Kentucky through the 2026-27 season, as first reported by the Herald-Leader.

McLean is the youngest member of Pope’s staff (33 years old) and was the final addition last spring, signing a one-year deal for $150,000 plus performance bonuses. According to the contract amendment signed on April 25, he will make $400,000 in base salary for the 2025-26 season and $425,000 for the 2026-27 season. Before joining Pope in Lexington, McLean was an assistant coach at Lamar University for three seasons. Prior to that, he was a support staff member under Kelvin Sampson at Houston, where he played from 2010-15. McLean, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, also serves as the associate head coach and defensive coordinator of the Bahamian National Team staff.

“Mikhail is going to be a star in this business,” Pope said in February. “He’s going to be a star. You talk about high ceilings, he’s got a high ceiling. He’s meant so much to us.”

In his first season at Kentucky, McLean worked mostly with Kentucky’s frontcourt. On more than one occasion, Mark Pope credited him for Amari Williams and Brandon Garrison‘s development. Williams is off to the NBA Draft, but Garrison is returning to Kentucky for his junior season. Last season, Garrison averaged 5.9 points and 3.9 rebounds per game coming off the bench.

“Clearly, you guys have seen it, especially through circumstance and injury, our fives have had to carry a burden for our team unlike any other fives in the country this year,” Pope said. “It leans into the way we play anyway, but they’ve had to carry all of that. Coach McLean has been with those guys every step of the way, mentoring, tutoring, teaching, and growing them…[He’s] coaching them on the court, coaching them in the classroom, and in their life.”

McLean will have some new big men to mentor this season. Joining Garrison in Kentucky’s frontcourt are 6’10” forward Jayden Quaintance, 6’11” forward Andrija Jelavic, and 6’11” center Malachi Moreno. They’ll be in good (and well-paid) hands.

“He is a star in the making,” Pope said again of McLean. “He’s going to be a head coach sooner than any of us would have imagined, and he’s going to crush it.”

Also due for a new deal: Mark Fox. Fox signed a one-year deal to join Pope in Lexington last spring. No official word yet on a new contract, but the Herald-Leader reports that Fox is expected to remain with the program in the 2025-26 season. The other three assistants on Pope’s staff — Alvin Brooks III, Cody Fueger, and Jason Hart — still have one more year left on their deals. Brooks, associate head coach, is set to make $825,000 in base salary in the 2025-26 season, and Fueger and Hart $525,000 each.

As for Mark Pope, because Kentucky made the Sweet 16, his original five-year deal now extends through the 2029-30 season. He will make an average annual salary of $5.5 million per year, making him the 11th-highest paid coach in college basketball per the USA Today database.

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