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John Brannen
Biographical details
Born	January 18, 1974 (age 50); Alexandria, Kentucky, U.S.
Alma mater	Marshall University
Playing career
1992–1994	Morehead State
1995–1997	Marshall
Coaching career (HC unless noted)
1999–2000	Charleston (assistant)
2000–2003	Eastern Kentucky (assistant)
2003–2006	St. Bonaventure (assistant)
2006–2009	VCU (assistant)
2009–2013	Alabama (assistant)
2013–2015	Alabama (assoc. HC)
2015	Alabama (interim HC)
2015–2019	Northern Kentucky
2019–2021	Cincinnati
2022–2023	Dayton (analyst & special asst.)
Head coaching record
Overall	114–72 (.613)
Tournaments	0–2 (NCAA Division I); 1–2 (NIT)
Accomplishments and honors
Championships
	2 Horizon League tournament (2017, 2019); 2 Horizon League regular season (2018, 2019); AAC regular season (2020)
Awards
	Horizon League Coach of the Year (2017)

John Brannen (born January 18, 1974) is an American basketball coach, mostly recently serving as a program analyst and senior special assistant for the University of Dayton Flyers. Brannen previously spent two seasons as the men's basketball coach of the University of Cincinnati Bearcats and four seasons as the head coach for the Northern Kentucky University Norse. Before that he spent nine seasons as an assistant coach to Anthony Grant at both VCU and Alabama. For the Tide's two games in the 2015 National Invitation Tournament, Brannen served as interim head coach.

Coaching career

Brannen held assistant coaching positions at Charleston, Eastern Kentucky and St. Bonaventure before being hired by former Marshall assistant Anthony Grant, who had just been named head coach at VCU. Brannen spent three seasons at VCU before following Grant to Alabama, where he was an assistant for six seasons (the last two as associate head coach). When Grant was fired following the Tide's 2015 SEC tournament loss, Brannen was named interim head coach for the team's NIT appearance.^[1]^[2] The Tide were knocked out of the tournament by Miami^[3] in the second round following a first round home win over Illinois.^[4]

Northern Kentucky

Brannen is a Kentucky native and was named the head coach of NKU, the fifth in program history, on April 7, 2015.^[5]^[6] In 2017, Brannen led the Norse to the Horizon League championship and the NCAA tournament in the school's first season of full Division I eligibility,^[7] the first team since 1970 to do so. Brannen was also named the 2017 Coach of the Year in the Horizon League. In his four season with the Norse Brannen earned two NCAA berths, two Horizon League regular season titles, and two Horizon League tournament championships.

Cincinnati

On April 14, 2019, Brannen was named the new head coach of Cincinnati.

In his first season, Brannen lead the Bearcats to a 20–10 record earning a share of the regular season American Athletic Conference title and the 1st overall seed in the conference tournament. However, the season was abruptly ended due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Bearcats were led by Jarron Cumberland and Trevon Scott, playing in a 2019–20 season record seven overtime games over the course of the season.

With a new roster and added struggles including a 25-day COVID-19 pause, the Bearcats ended Brannen's second year fifth overall in the regular season with a 12–11 overall record. The team did make a surprise run to the conference tournament championship game before losing to an eventual Final Four team in Houston.

Dismissal

Within two days after the conference tournament championship, the Bearcats saw six players enter the transfer portal.^[8] On March 26, the AD John Cunningham announced the university would begin investigating allegations against the program.^[9] On April 3, it was announced that Brannen was placed on indefinite leave.^[10] On April 9, Cincinnati announced John Brannen had been relieved of his duties effective immediately.^[11] On September 8, 2022, it was announced that Brannen and the University of Cincinnati had reached an amicable resolution, later announced to be a $2.75 million settlement.^[12]

Return to coaching

Brannen rejoined Anthony Grant as a program analyst and senior special assistant for Dayton for the 2022–23 season.^[13] Brannen left the program after one year.^[14]

Playing career

Brannen played at Newport Central Catholic High School in Newport, Kentucky, followed by a college career at Morehead State before transferring to Marshall for his final two seasons. As a junior, Brannen would play with teammate Jason Williams and was coached by Billy Donovan and then assistant Gregg Marshall. As a senior, Brannen led the Southern Conference in scoring and was named the league tournament MVP. Brannen played two seasons of professional basketball in Belgium's First Division before returning to the States to begin his coaching career.

Personal life

Brannen is married to the former Lisa Elswick, with whom he has twin daughters. He is originally from Alexandria, Kentucky. He received his bachelor's degree in business management from Marshall University in 1997 and was a Rhodes Scholar finalist as a college senior.

Head coaching record

Statistics overview
Season	Team	Overall	Conference	Standing	Postseason
Alabama Crimson Tide (Southeastern Conference) (2015)
2014–15	Alabama	1–1	0–0		NIT Second Round
Alabama:		1–1 (.500)
Northern Kentucky Norse (Horizon League) (2015–2019)
2015–16	Northern Kentucky	9–21	5–13	8th
2016–17	Northern Kentucky	24–11	12–6	T–3rd	NCAA Division I Round of 64
2017–18	Northern Kentucky	22–10	15–3	1st	NIT First Round
2018–19	Northern Kentucky	26–9	13–5	T–1st	NCAA Division I Round of 64
Northern Kentucky:		81–51 (.614)	45–27 (.625)
Cincinnati Bearcats (American Athletic Conference) (2019–2021)
2019–20	Cincinnati	20–10	13–5	T–1st	No postseason held^[1]
2020–21	Cincinnati	12–11	8–6	5th
Cincinnati:		32–20 (.604)	21–11 (.656)
Total:		114–72 (.613)
National champion Postseason invitational champion Conference regular season champion Conference regular season and conference tournament champion Division regular season champion Division regular season and conference tournament champion Conference tournament champion