Alvin Brooks III has provided a bit of the "Midas Touch" during his five years as a college assistant coach. After helping Arkansas-Fort Smith (2006) and Midland College (2007) to NJCAA Division I national championships, Brooks has helped Bradley to back-to-back, 21-wins and runner-up finishes in a pair of postseason tournaments in his two years with the Braves.
When veteran assistant coach Lennox Forrester left the Bradley staff in 2007 to begin his head coaching career at Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, head coach Jim Les turned to another up-and-coming talent to fill the void on the coaching staff. Now entering his third year with the Braves, Brooks has appointed Bradley's recruiting coordinator.
A native of Houston, Texas, Brooks helped Arkansas-Fort Smith to a 62-7 (.899) record in his two years on the staff, which was capped by the 2006 NJCAA Division I national title. He joined the Midland (Texas) College staff for the 2006-07 campaign and helped the Chaps to a 29-8 (.784) mark and the 2007 NJCAA Division I national championship.
That success has followed Brooks to Bradley, where he helped the Braves to 21 wins and a runner-up finish in the inaugural College Basketball Invitational national postseason tournament in 2007-08. In year two with the Braves, Brooks helped Bradley to another 21-win season and a runner-up finish in the first CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.
While he continues to build an impressive coaching resumé early in his career, Brooks does come from a coaching pedigree: his father, Alvin Brooks II, was the head coach at the University of Houston from 1993-98 and served on Billy Gillespie's staffs at Texas A&M and the University of Kentucky.
Brooks III began his college playing career at Midland and helped the Chapparals to a sixth-place finish in the 2000 NJCAA national tournament before transferring to Idaho State University. After earning Academic All-Big Sky Conference honors as a senior at Idaho State, Brooks earned his bachelor's degree in finance in 2002 and his master's degree in athletic administration from ISU in 2003.
Brooks served as an aide to former Idaho State athletic director Jim Senter for one year before beginning his coaching career at Arkansas-Fort Smith in 2004.