Mark Pope’s top assistant coach has officially agreed to a contract. Here are the details.

Another of Mark Pope’s assistant coaches has officially signed his contract with the University of Kentucky.

Alvin Brooks III — the top assistant on the Wildcats’ staff and an addition that was viewed as a hiring coup shortly after Pope took the UK job in April — signed a two-year contract with the school on May 28. UK athletics director Mitch Barnhart signed the contract the following day, but university president Eli Capilouto did not officially sign off on the deal until Sunday, according to the school records reviewed by the Herald-Leader.

Brooks will be paid $800,000 for the upcoming 2024-25 season and $825,000 for the 2025-26 season, making him the highest-paid member of Pope’s first coaching staff. He has the title of associate head coach and will be one of three assistants — along with Cody Fueger and Jason Hart — with primary off-campus recruiting duties alongside the UK head coach.

Fueger and Hart also signed two-year deals with the Wildcats, and they’ll both have a salary of $500,000 for the 2024-25 season and $525,000 for the 2025-26 season. Longtime Division I head coach Mark Fox is an “associate coach” on Pope’s staff and will make $200,000 on a one-year deal this season. Assistant coach Mikhail McLean , a relatively late addition to the UK staff last month, does not yet have a contract on record with the university.

All four of the assistant coaches who have already signed their contracts will be eligible for lucrative bonuses based on the Cats’ on-court results. They can each earn an additional $20,000 for a Sweet 16 appearance, $30,000 for a trip to the Elite Eight, $50,000 for a Final Four appearance or $100,000 for an NCAA championship. Each coach would also earn $30,000 for an SEC regular-season title and $20,000 if the Cats win the SEC Tournament.

Brooks was announced as a member of Pope’s first Kentucky staff two weeks after the new head coach was hired, a bombshell move within college basketball.

The 44-year-old assistant spent the previous eight seasons at Baylor as the top assistant under head coach Scott Drew, who was Barnhart’s first call to replace John Calipari in April, and helped lead the Bears to the 2021 NCAA title. Brooks brings the reputation as one of the top recruiters in college basketball , and he’s landed one top-10 prospect in each of the past three cycles, along with helping develop several Baylor players into NBA draft picks in recent years.

Brooks, along with Fueger and Hart, has been a fixture on the recruiting trail alongside Pope over the past three months as Kentucky scouts high school prospects from the 2025 class and beyond, and he was instrumental in putting together the current UK roster, which will feature 12 new scholarship players, a group that is getting early top-25 consideration despite having never played together.

Pope signed a five-year contract worth a total of $27.5 million in May, one month after being hired to replace Calipari, who left Lexington for the head coaching vacancy at Arkansas after spending the past 15 seasons with the Wildcats.

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