RE: Enquirer: The legendary work ethic of 'relentless' John Brannen
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The legendary work ethic of 'relentless' John Brannen and his path to the Cincinnati Bearcats
Fletcher Page, Cincinnati Enquirer Published 9:01 p.m. ET April 17, 2019 | Updated 9:42 p.m. ET April 17, 2019
Growing up in Alexandria, Kentucky, John Brannen marked lines on Walnut Park Drive asphalt in chalk.
They represented distances for sprints, and the future college basketball player and recently named University of Cincinnati coach would run down and back, down and back further and further and down and back again and again.
It's not how the days of a basketball prodigy began. That's how they ended.
John Brannen is introduced as men's basketball head coach at the University of Cincinnati, Monday, April 15, 2019, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. Brannen formerly coached at Northern Kentucky University.
John Brannen is introduced as men's basketball head coach at the University of Cincinnati, Monday, April 15, 2019, at Fifth Third Arena in Cincinnati. Brannen formerly coached at Northern Kentucky University. (Photo: Kareem Elgazzar)
He shot baskets before school in the morning, worked out after classes in the afternoon and played pick-up in open gyms until it was just him and the chalk before calling it a day.
"John is the hardest working player I’ve ever had," said former Newport Central Catholic High School basketball coach Ron Dawn. "Not even close. He was relentless."
Greg White, Brannen's coach for one season at Marshall University, said the same thing. So, too, did Anthony Grant, who was an assistant at Marshall for a season when Brannen played and hired Brannen as an assistant coach at both VCU and Alabama.
Plenty of basketball players and coaches put in long hours. But Grant said what separated Brannen, what led to Brannen taking Northern Kentucky to the NCAA Tournament two of the past three seasons and eventually to the University of Cincinnati, is the ability to work hard and smart.
Working together nearly a dozen years, Grant said Brannen's actions were always intentional, purposeful and well-thought-out.
"He has a gaze about him that lets you know he’s really locked in, whether it’s a conversation or an idea that he thinks will be a good strategy," said Grant, now head coach at Dayton. "His ability to lock in and kind of get lost in the moment is something that helped him as a player and helped him as a coach as well."
Those chalk lines make perfect sense to Grant. He tells his own story, from when Grant was on Billy Donovan's Marshall staff and Brannen transferred from Morehead State, about Brannen's tenacity.
"He was probably one of the most intense stretchers I’ve seen in my life," Grant said.
As a player, Grant said Brannen always showed up 30 minutes before players were required to begin stretching. And his routine is something Grant still jokes with Brannen about to this day.
"It looked like he was trying to pull his legs off, like he was trying to separate his ankle with how hard he worked to get his ankles loose," Grant said. "His warm-up was harder than some of our workouts. He was just that intense with what he would do. He would get so worked up you could see the saliva coming out of his mouth because he was trying to go so hard."
After a playing career that included leading the Southern Conference in scoring and two seasons professionally in Belgium's First Division, Brannen frequently talked to Dawn as his coaching career took off
Dawn called Travis Ford at Eastern Kentucky in 2000 and said Brannen would be the hardest-working assistant he'd ever have. Ford made the hire.
"Travis called me back a month later and said, 'you were right,' " Dawn said. After three seasons with Ford and three seasons at St. Bonaventure, Brannen himself made the phone call to ask about a position when Grant got the head job at VCU.
"He was one of the first guys I hired," Grant said. "His work ethic, his tenacity from a recruiting standpoint, his ability to teach and motivate on the floor, I felt like he had the intangible that you needed to be successful."
Brannen answered a call earlier this month.
It was from White, the coach turned friend and former UCLA assistant, and the Bruins coaching search came up. Brannen didn't want the UCLA job. He asked if Mick Cronin was in the running because Brannen wanted to fill Cronin's position at UC.
"That played out for Mick, and then it played out for John," White said. "So I would say this is really a dream come true kind of a job for him, right in his own backyard."
For the second time in his life, a coaching change involving UCLA affected Brannen. In 1997, after Donovan left for Florida, White came from Westwood to Marshall and encountered in Brannen a senior who had already played for two programs and two coaches.
Brannen's buy in, White said, was instant. The impression of success in the making was immediate.
"You knew when you walked into practice what you were going to get every single day," White said. "You knew when you got in a game, he was going to compete. He was going to fight every step of the way."
Chalk washes away, but markers of Brannen's work ethic remain in the conviction of those who Brannen played for and coached with.
Dawn said he wouldn't be surprised if UC is in the Final Four soon. In fact, the Newport Central Catholic High School principal said he expects deep runs for UC in March. Grant said success for Brannen and the Bearcats is an easy call. White was emphatic about that, too.
"Failure is not an option for John Brannen," he said. "He will not fail. He’s never failed and he won’t fail at Cincinnati."
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Enquirer: The legendary work ethic of 'relentless' John Brannen
