Crean brings in McClain
Georgia basketball coach Tom Crean has added former Illinois-Chicago head coach Steve McClain to his staff, confirming a report earlier today by UGASports.
McClain spent the last five seasons as the head coach of the Flames, going 76-93, including a 42-48 record in the Horizon League.
UIC went 18-17 this past season and reached the finals of the Horizon League Tournament before losing to Northern Kentucky 71-62.
He replaces Joe Scott who recently was named the head coach at the Air Force Academy.
“Steve is beyond tireless and driven for excellence. He has such a strong basketball mind, intensity, determination and genuine care for his players as people first," Crean said in a statement. "He finished within a few points of winning the Horizon League Championship in March, and it was a lot of fun to watch them get healthy and get better. The last four years at Illinois Chicago were the best four years of cumulative success since the early ‘90s. Steve gets it.
Crean and McClain are not strangers to one another.
McClain also coached at Indiana, spending five years with Crean from 2010-to-2015 before taking over the head job at UIC.
The Flames won 16 or more games during each of McClain’s last four seasons in Chicago, just the second time UIC did so in the program’s 73 seasons all time. The Flames earned postseason bids twice under McClain, reaching the semifinals of the 2017 CBI and finishing as runner-up in the 2018 CIT. UIC also advanced to the championship game of the 2020 Horizon League Tournament, a first for the Flames since 2004.
The UIC record books were rewritten significantly on McClain’s watch, with team season records for points (2,749 in 2016-17), 3-point field goals (303 in 2018-19), rebounds (1,426 in 2016-17), assists (524 in 2016-17) and blocks (242 in 2017-18).
“There’s no question I’m excited to get back with Coach Crean and be a part of the University of Georgia Athletic Department family,” McClain said. “It may be coincidence or it may be the way things were supposed to happen, but year three is the same time I got the opportunity to go to Indiana with Coach."
Prior to coaching at Indiana, McClain also served as the head coach at Wyoming for nine years (1998-2007), leading the Cowboys to a record of 157-115, including a trip to the NCAAs in 2002.
He also served four years as an assistant at Colorado (2007-2010).
McClain is 57 years old.
The Bulldogs are coming off a 16-16 record, including an 81-63 win over Ole Miss in the SEC Tournament before the tournament was cancelled due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
