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Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes adds veteran to staff

On3 imageby:Brent Hubbs•05/10/25•

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Rick Barnes, Tennessee
Rick Barnes, Tennessee - © Jordan Prather-Imagn Images

Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes is adding another veteran coach to his staff as Barnes is adding 33 year college basketball veteran Steve McClain to his staff. 

On3’s Joe Tipton reported the news Saturday afternoon. 

McClain most recently served as an assistant coach at Tennessee, but has head coaching experience. McClain has been a head coach at Hutchinson Community College, Wyoming and Illinois-Chicago in his coaching career that dates back to 1982. 

McClain has actually been in the SEC since 2020 where he was at Georgia with Tom Crean till he joined the Texas Staff in 2022. 

McClain and Crean were also together at Indiana from 2010-2015 when Crean was the Hoosiers head man. 

McClain’s most successful run as a head coach was when we was at Wyoming from 1998-2007 going 157-115 including a run to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament in 2001-02 where the Cowboys went 22-9 and won the Mountain West Conference. Wyoming won the regular season Mountain West Conference title in 2001 and 2002. McClain was named the Mountain West Coach of the Year in 2002. 

McClain is the second hire by Barnes this off-season. Earlier this month, Barnes hired Amorrow Morgan as an assistant coach filling the vacancy created by the departure of Rod Clark to Indiana. 

Morgan spent the the last two seasons at California. Morgan is a Memphis native, who also had coaching stops at Loyola-Chicago, South Alabama, Henderson State, Nichiolls State, the University of Illinois-Springfield and Lady of the Lake University. 

“I am thrilled to welcome Amorrow to Rocky Top,” Barnes said. “As soon as we knew we had a decision to make, it was immediately clear Amorrow would be our first choice. He is a young, energetic coach with a sharp basketball mind who will make an impact with our program from day one. I know he will do all he can to help our players excel and that he will mesh with the strong culture we have in place.”

Tennessee begins summer workouts the first week of June looking to build off their second straight trip to the Elite 8 and with a roster that will feature plenty of new faces highlighted by transfers Jakobi Gillespie and Amaree Abram in the backcourt along with transfer big man Jaylen Carey. Tennessee also landed the second ranked prep player in the country in the spring in Nate Ament. 

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