Catching Up With Coach Alvin Brooks III

Story by Larry Vaught / Photo Courtesy of @Coach_AB3

Wherever Alvin Brooks III goes, success seems to follow him and Kentucky fans can hope that trend continues now that he’s in Lexington as part of new UK coach Mark Pope’s staff.

He started his coaching career  at Arkansas – Fort Smith and helped the team win the 2006 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division I championship. He went to Midland the next season and again was part of a NJCAA national championship team in 2007.

If that wasn’t enough, during his eight-year stint as an assistant coach at Baylor he was on the staff for the 2021 national championship team.

Not bad considering the plan was not for him to be a coach according to his father, Alvin Brooks II who was on coach Billy Gillispie’s staff at UK as director of operations for two seasons (2007-09) and is now the head coach at Lamar.

“When he was younger, I was the first black head coach of any sport at Houston in 1993. When he would come over, I would never work him out, never have film sessions, never talk about how we run plays. He would just run around the gym and play. He saw all the difficulties I went through. He saw the struggles from raising money to recruiting guys. He was like, ‘I never want to coach,’ and I said, ‘That’s good because I don’t want you to.’

“The plan was never for him to be a coach. Coaching basketball was not going to be a thing for him. I love it but I told him there were so many more things he could do.”

Alvin Brooks III went to work for some attorneys in Houston after finishing his playing career at Idaho State and then went to Washington, D.C.,as a financial planner. However, he wanted to coach and once his father realized he could not talk him out of it, he encouraged his son to start in junior college to learn how to become a complete coach.

Obviously, he learned his lessons well and many thought he was on the verge of becoming a head coach when he decided to join Pope’s staff.

“I don’t think he was antsy about being here for eight years and not being a head coach yet. He could have stayed here a long time and been very happy but he just could not pass up the chance to go to Kentucky for various reasons. He’s a really good man that I think Kentucky fans will really enjoy,” John Morris, the play-by-play radio announcer for Baylor basketball and football, said.

One off-court factor that helped solidify Brooks’ decision to come to UK was the school situation  for his two autistic sons.

“He wanted to see if there was a school and personnel that could provide a good place for his boys. That was very important to him,” Morris said.

His father told his son he was sure “people there could provide a good support system and really help develop his boys” a lot and that’s what the new UK coach found on his first visit to Lexington since his father had coached there.

“Even if it is a good basketball job and move, if it is not a good move for your family you don’t leave,” the Lamar coach said. “That’s what I believe and he and his wife feel the same. At the end of the day your family is what you have to take care of first and he certainly knew that when he made his decision which shows how good he felt about what he found in Lexington."