Mitch Barnhart bracing for ‘massive change’ in college sports

“We’ve got a lot of questions and not a lot of answers, but we know there’s massive change ahead in the way we do our work.”

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. – Mitch Barnhart attended his first SEC Spring Meetings in 2003. More than 20 years later, at this year’s event, he experienced something that’s never happened before.

But that’s not a good thing.

Mark Pope makes final addition to staff

The new Kentucky coach has hired his fifth and final assistant.

Mitch Barnhart bracing for 'massive change' in college sports

New Kentucky coach Mark Pope is now operating with a full staff.

Pope has filled the fifth and final position on his staff by hiring Lamar assistant Mikhail McLean, CatsPause.com has learned. Former Wildcat and 1998 national champion Scott Padgett had also been in the mix for the position.

McLean, who has spent the past four seasons as an assistant at Lamar, joins a UK staff that also features associate head coach Alvin Brooks III from Baylor, former USC assistant Jason Hart of the G League Ignite, former BYU assistant Cody Fueger, and former Nevada and Georgia head coach Mark Fox. Pope also brought on BYU assistant Nick Robinson on as his director of basketball operations.

McLean played collegiately at Houston, where he averaged 2.4 points and 1.8 rebounds per game over five seasons with the Cougars, where he played for both James Dickey and Kelvin Sampson.

Alvin Brooks, the father of UK assistant Alvin Brooks III and a former Houston assistant, then hired McLean as an assistant at Lamar four years ago.

Mitch Barnhart on the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics - A Sea Of Blue

McLean, who is originally a native of the Bahamas, was an assistant on Houston’s 2020-21 team that reached the Final Four.

After losing all 13 scholarship players from last season’s roster to graduation, the NBA Draft or the transfer portal, Pope’s inaugural 9-man transfer class is currently ranked No. 4 nationally by 247Sports and features No. 23 Brandon Garrison (Oklahoma State), No. 34 Otega Oweh (Oklahoma), No. 36 Jaxson Robinson, No. 48 Lamont Butler (San Diego State), No. 71 Andrew Carr (Wake Forest), No. 88 Amari Williams (Drexel), No. 91 Koby Brea (Dayton), No. 126 Kerr Kriisa (West Virginia), and No. 319 Ansley Almonor (Fairleigh Dickinson).