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Published Aug 23, 2022
MBB: A little on Steve McClain, Chris Beard's new coaching hire
Keenan Womack  •  Orangebloods
Basketball Reporter
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@keenanwomack_ob

Steve McClain, the new hire for UT basketball as an assistant to the head coach, has worked across college basketball over the last 40 years. He's been a head coach at two stops: Wyoming from 1998 to 2006, and Illinois-Chicago from 2015 to 2020. He also spent time as an interim head coach at Colorado.

McClain started in the JuCo circuit, where he coached from 1984-1994, before he was hired on as an assistant at TCU, where he stayed for four years. In 1998, he was offered the head coaching job at Wyoming, where he stayed for eight years.

As the head coach of the Cowboys, McClain, in 2001-2002, took them to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they hadn't been since 1987. That season, the MWC awarded him Coach of the Year. He finished with a record of 157-115 in Laramie.

After splitting with Wyoming, McClain took an assistant coaching job at Colorado, where he remained from 2007 to 2010. As stated earlier, he spent time as the interim head coach at CU as well, before leaving to take a job under Tom Crean at Indiana from 2010-2015. In the 2011-2012 season, Indiana had wins over #1 Kentucky, #2 Ohio State, and #5 Michigan State and went 27-9.

In 2015, McClain took a job as the HC at Illinois-Chicago. Inheriting a depleted program, his first season was rough, going just 5-25, yet he was able to turn it around the next season, winning 12 more games and finishing just below .500. They had a winning record in 2017-2018, going 20-16 and being the runner-up in the CIT postseason tournament.

He left UIC in 2020, reuniting with Crean at Georgia. Crean was fired this offseason.

Overall, having a person with success as a D1 head coach is always a bonus, especially the high level of success that McClain had at Wyoming. Like McClain, Chris Beard also came up through the ranks, starting low on the college basketball totem pole and climbing his way up. It seems like this is a common theme with Beard's hires, which makes sense. The toughness that comes with experience reflects on the team. It seems that Steve McClain is this type of coach.