‘I’ll start the bus; it doesn’t matter to me’ — Brannen on new position at Dayton

Mike now lives in Lexington, Ky., where he’s a financial advisor, and John said he still roots for the Flyers but follows his nephew’s career more closely. However, John hadn’t been able to gauge Mike’s excitement about his nephew’s new job — program analyst and senior special assistant.on Anthony Grant’s staff at Dayton — because he didn’t tell anyone outside his central family until UD announced the news Tuesday.

“Nobody knew except my wife, my kids and my mom,” John said.

Dayton was able to create a new position for Brannen, he said, in part because Brett Comer, the director of basketball operations, left the program in July to join Donnie Jones’ staff at Stetson as an assistant coach. Grant moved Sean Damaska, whose position was video coordinator, into Comer’s spot, and that left a position open for Brannen.

“You want to provide value,” Brannen said, “and I want to make sure I can provide the value coach Grant needed and his players needed. Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that.”

While Brannen was too young to remember his uncle playing at Dayton, he grew up in northern Kentucky and has visited UD Arena as an opposing coach and the Dayton area in recruiting many times. He knows the history of Dayton basketball.

“I’m well aware of the fan base at Dayton,” Brannen said, “and how passionate they are, how real they are and how they understand basketball.”

The job gives Brannen, 48, new life in college basketball 17 months after he lost his job as the head coach at Cincinnati.

Asked if he thought he would get another chance, Brannen said, “I certainly believed I should. You can’t control the future, but I certainly expected to. That doesn’t mean I’m not extremely grateful for the opportunity. It’s certainly something I wanted to do.”

In his first head coaching job, Brannen won two Horizon League regular-season championships and guided Northern Kentucky to two NCAA tournament berths in four seasons before getting the gig at UC in 2019. The Bearcats won the American Athletic Conference regular-season championship in his first season, finishing 20-10 before the pandemic ended their postseason dreams.

After a 12-11 finish in 2020-21, six players left the program in the days after the season ended. The Athletic cited a rift between Brannen and the players as the reason for the exodus, and UC fired Brannen in April.

“The decision to move in a new direction comes after a thorough review of our program, which included conversations with student-athletes, coaches and staff, as well as with coach Brannen,” Athletic Director John Cunningham said in a statement then.

UC denied Brannen his $5.25 million contract buyout, claiming it fired him for cause. Brannen responded by filing a federal lawsuit. He dropped the federal suit last October and refiled it in the Ohio Court of Claims. It’s scheduled to be heard next May.

While Brannen can’t talk about the lawsuit, he said, “It’s been a difficult two years in a number of different ways. We’re not a victim. I mean people go through difficult times all the time.”

One thing Brannen did during his time away from coaching was watch Dayton basketball. He has remained close to Grant, who’s entering his sixth season at Dayton, since he was a player at Marshall University from 1994-97 and Grant was a young assistant coach on Billy Donovan’s staff. They were together two seasons there — the first Brannen had to sit out as a transfer — and then spent nine seasons together at Virginia Commonwealth and Alabama, where Grant had his first two head coaching jobs.

Those nine seasons are special to Brannen because of how close his and Grant’s families became. Brannen and his wife Lisa have 16-year-old twin daughters, Jaylee and Katelyn, who attend his alma mater, Newport Central Catholic, and grew up around Grant’s kids. When Brannen talked to the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday, he was on his way to see his daughters play volleyball.

John got emotional talking about the connection to the Grant family Tuesday. He said he can’t wait to share stories with Grant’s sons when they spend more time together this year. Those are the moments that stand out from his years with Grant — not the NCAA tournament victory in 2007 in their first season at VCU.

“Beating Duke is not the highlight,” he said. “It’s watching Makai and Preston grow up and certainly A.J., and Jayda was a big part of our lives.”

Brannen joins Grant’s program at an exciting time. The Flyers return their entire starting lineup and seven of their top eight scorers. They likely will be the Atlantic 10 Conference preseason favorite, though Saint Louis is right there with them as a top contender, and could start the season in the top 25.

Brannen sat behind the Dayton bench a number of times last year as a spectator. He didn’t get to know the players personally but saw the growth as the team overcame a 1-3 start to finish second in the A-10 and get to the brink of earning a NCAA tournament berth.

“You didn’t know who the point guard was going into the season, and Mali (Malachi Smith) turns out to be unbelievable,” Brannen said. “Deuce’s (Daron Holmes) development and Koby’s (Brea) development toward the year’s end and TC (Toumani Camara) just took tremendous steps. It seemed to be a team whose identity was defense, and Anthony is as creative an offensive mind as there is if you go back and look at our VCU days and then the offensive team he had here two years ago. I think I know what our identity will be because I know Anthony, but I also know his creativity and that he’ll put guys in the right position to make plays.”

Brannen will now get a chance to get to know the players. He said Tuesday was the first official practice of the fall semester. He’ll likely soon see how hungry this team is and how excited it is about its potential to improve on a 24-11 season and return to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2017. That’s what all 12 scholarship players talked about in a series of interviews with the Dayton Daily News in June and July.

Brannen has already got a clear picture of what Grant sees in this team.

“I think he understands the opportunity,” Brannen said, “But that doesn’t change him. He’s the same person. The thing about him is his consistency. When you’re in a leadership spot like the University of Dayton head coach and your players and staff feel that same consistency every day, it really allows you to be the best you can be, and I think he takes pride in that.”

Brannen’s new job will give him a seat on the bench near Grant and the rest of his staff. He said his goal will be to see the program from 30,000 feat, so to speak. He expects the job to take on a life of its own. He just wants to serve Grant, the rest of the staff and the players.

“I’ll do anything those guys need in terms of ideas, perspective,” Brannen said. “I’ll start the bus. It doesn’t matter to me. I’m here to help those guys be the best they can possibly be, and usually when that happens, you get a lot more than you put into. I hope I can provide a least a little bit because I know I’m going to get more out of it.”

The job description specifically mentioned the importance of candidates having knowledge of analytics, an increasingly important part of the game. Brannen said Dayton uses HD Intelligence, which bills itself as the “first and only full-service analytics company to operate exclusively in the world of college basketball.”

“It’s a big part of my belief in coaching,” Brannen said. “I believe it’s a part of the game now. It’s a big part of the coaching piece. You have to streamline it to your players. So behind closed doors and in meetings, we’re going to be hashing it out, and Anthony’s one of the best communicators. He has the ability to take very complicated numbers and make it very easy for our guys to understand, and we’re a smart team so we’re going to understand those numbers. I think they’ll help in games, but it’s not like we’re going to be utilizing them any more. I’m not bringing any more to the table. I’m just here to help.”