Former UC, NKU head coach joins Grant’s staff at Dayton

Brannen attended several games during the season and then traveled to Washington, D.C., to see Dayton play in the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament in March. He was with the team when it practiced at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in D.C. a day before starting play at Capital One Arena.

Now nine weeks before the start of the 2022 season, Dayton has created a new position for Brannen, a former head coach at Northern Kentucky and Cincinnati who has known Grant for 28 years. He will serve as program analyst and senior special assistant.

“John brings an extensive amount of experience and success as a former head coach and leader into this new role,” Grant said in a press release. “Having coached John during his collegiate playing days, and working with him for nine years on previous coaching staffs, I’m excited about the opportunity to partner with him again. I believe his passion, knowledge, and skill set will be great assets to our players, staff, and program. We’re excited to welcome John and his family to the Flyer Family.”

Brannen talked to the Dayton Daily News on Monday afternoon and said, “The biggest thing is how grateful I am. Anthony’s a very close friend, a mentor and everything in between. It’s an opportunity to be around him and his amazing staff. I was around the program last year as a spectator, and he’s a great teacher of young men. I’m grateful and ready to serve and help in any way I can. I’m very appreciative of Coach Grant and (Athletic Director) Neil (Sullivan) for giving me an opportunity like this.”

UD posted the job Brannen is taking online in early August with this description: “The Program Analyst\Senior Special Assistant to the Head Coach will serve the program in a basketball advisory and analytics capacity regarding all aspects of team strategy, schematics and game planning. The analyst will review and develop analysis that will influence basketball decision making through data, film and team evaluation. The selected candidate will support the coordination of strategic and operational basketball decisions that advance the program, as well as perform some head coach support functions.”

This is the first college coaching job for Brannen, 48, since he lost his job at Cincinnati in April 2021 after going 32-21 in two seasons. Prior to his dismissal, six players entered the transfer portal in a three-day stretch after the season.

According to reports, Cincinnati athletic director John Cunningham sent a termination letter to Brannen in which he wrote the coach “failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance … with respect to rules, regulations and policies and have further jeopardized and/or disregarded the well-being, health and safety of student-athletes.”

Brannen filed a lawsuit against UC, seeking the buyout he was denied when UC claimed it fired him “for cause.” Brannen’s attorney, Tom Mars, told The Sporting News in October, Brannen had two goals for filing the suit.

“One is to get the money they owe you,” Mars said, “and two is to — I hate to say ‘clearing your name’, because I don’t think there is such a thing as clearing your name — but proving to the satisfaction of any potential future employers that you actually didn’t abuse your players and you actually didn’t violate NCAA rules.”

Brannen landed the UC job after taking Northern Kentucky to the NCAA tournament twice (2017 and 2019) in four seasons. He also won two Horizon League regular-season championships (2018 and 2019). He coached the Norse from 2015-19.

Brannen’s first head coaching opportunity came at the end of the 2014-15 season when he was named interim coach at Alabama when Grant was fired after the 2014-15 regular season. Brannen coached the team to two victories in the NIT.

Brannen and Grant first crossed paths during Brannen’s playing career. In March 1994, Billy Donovan was hired by Marshall. Grant joined Donovan’s staff in April after one season at Stetson. Brannen, a 1992 Newport Catholic High School (Ky.) graduate, transferred to Marshall that May after two seasons at Morehead State.

Grant was at Marshall in the 1994-95 season, which Brannen sat out as a transfer, and the following season when he averaged 14.4 points as a redshirt junior. Then Donovan and Grant left to coach at Florida, and Brannen averaged 20.9 points in 1996-97, his final season, while playing for Greg White.

Grant and Brannen didn’t work together again until 2006 when Grant got his first head coaching job at Virginia Commonwealth. In between, Brannen worked as an assistant coach at College of Charleston, Eastern Kentucky and St. Bonaventure.

Brannen worked as an assistant coach on Grant’s staff for three seasons at VCU before following Grant to Alabama in 2009. He spent six seasons at Alabama with Grant and was the associate head coach the last two seasons.

Grant and Brannen’s connection twice led to preseason scrimmages between their teams. Dayton scrimmaged Northern Kentucky in 2017 and Cincinnati in 2019.

This summer, Brannen stayed active in coaching by leading basketball camps in Northern Kentucky.