John Brannen (basketball)

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]

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 2016-2017 Coach of the Year in the Horizon League.

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

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.

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.

• John Brannen bio at NKU