LEXINGTON, Ky. — Ahead of his third season with the Wildcats, Mark Pope is adding a new position to his staff, and he's tapped a previous colleague to fill the role.
Keegan Brown comes to Lexington to join the Kentucky men's basketball staff as Director of Roster Management. It's a role which, according to UK, will focus on roster-building efforts, including "transfer portal evaluation and acquisition strategy, roster planning, scholarship allocation and resource optimization."
Brown will also work closely with Pope and the staff on player personnel scouting, and he will "utilize the integration of analytics into recruiting and roster decisions, along with coordinating information across staff, agents and key external relationships," according to a press release sent Thursday.
“Keegan Brown is an outstanding addition to our program,” Pope said via release. “He brings a unique blend of organization, analytics and feel for the game that’s critical to any organization, along with a deep understanding of what it takes to build a roster that can compete at the highest level.
"In today’s game, roster management is everything, and Keegan is as good as it gets in that space. We’re excited to have him in Lexington and confident he’ll make an immediate impact on our success.”
Kentucky confirms Keegan Brown is joining Mark Pope's staff as "director of roster management"
— Maggie Davis (@MaggieDavisTV) March 26, 2026
Here's how UK described his role in "roster construction and player acquisition" as well as in "resource optimization" ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/aKxupbnFvU
Brown previously worked under Pope at BYU, where the former started his career as video coordinator. Over the course of his five seasons with the Cougars, Brown advanced into the role Director of Player Personnel, where he worked in scouting coordination, roster construction planning, NIL strategy and integrating analytics into personnel decision-making.
“I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to join a historic program like Kentucky basketball,” Brown said. “The tradition, expectations, and standard here are unmatched, and I’m excited to get to work alongside Coach Pope and the staff to build a roster that reflects that level.”
Two years ago, when Pope was hired at Kentucky, Brown accepted a job with the Wisconsin Herd, the NBA G League affiliate of the Milwaukee Bucks.
There, Brown was involved with coaching operations and player personnel. In addition to leading video and workflow infrastructure, he supported G League Draft preparation, player pool scouting, roster evaluation processes, trade-related analysis and G League scouting efforts for the Milwaukee Bucks.
He also contributed to the Milwaukee Bucks’ pre-draft processes, assisting with draft intel preparation and supporting pre-draft workouts.
Brown earned a Master’s in Sports Business Management and an MBA from the University of Central Florida, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management from Brigham Young University.
There remains an on-court assistant coach opening on Pope's staff, after Jason Hart accepted the Associate Head Coach role with the SMU Mustangs earlier this week.
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