Hutchinson Community College

McClain was the head basketball coach at Hutchinson CC from 1994-1998. While there, they won a NJCAA national championship during the 1994 season. His overall record at Hutchinson was 91-16.

Wyoming

McClain was the head basketball coach at Wyoming from 1998 to 2007. In four out of his 9 seasons, Wyoming had made it to either the NCAA tournament, or the NIT tournament. His overall record at Wyoming was 157–115. However, after a disappointing 2006 campaign where he went 17–15, with no postseason berth, he was fired. In the 2002 NCAA tournament, Wyoming made it to the second round, which was their best finish since 1987. He was named the MWC coach of the year that season.

Steve McClain was known for his very animated and intense coaching style during games.^{[citation needed]}

His teams have won two regular season conference championships. In six out of the 8 seasons he has coached in the MWC, at least one of his players has received First team All MWC honors. From 2000 to 2002, the Cowboys won at least 20 games in all three of their seasons, marking the first time that happened in two decades.

UIC

McClain parted ways with UIC after five seasons on March 13, 2020 after a 18–17 season that fell 1 win short of an NCAA tournament bid.^[2][3]

Assistant coach

As an assistant at Colorado, McClain served as acting head coach during the absence of head coach Jeff Bzdelik for a portion of the 2009–10 season. He helped lead the Buffaloes to a 15–16 record, with seven of those losses coming by six points or less. While at Texas, McClain was a part of the Longhorns Big-12 Tournament Championship as well as an Elite-8 finish in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

On April 22, 2020, Georgia announced the hiring of McClain as an assistant coach, reuniting him with Tom Crean who was the head coach at Indiana where McClain was the assistant for the 2010–15 seasons.^[4]