Brad Brownell Interview
Mar 5, 2007 0:16:06 GMT -5
Post by raiderrunt on Mar 5, 2007 0:16:06 GMT -5
Interview w/ Wright State Head Coach Brad Brownell
March 3rd, 2007Interviews, Wright St
By Bill Kintner
DAYTON – Late in the second half as the clock ticked down, the over-flow crowd in the Ervin J. Nutter Center screamed and the students crowded down to the end of the court waiting to start their celebration as the home team Wright State Raiders led the 10th ranked Butler Bulldogs by 12 points.
As Wright State’s Reinaldo Smith streaked past the Raider’s bench with the ball he had a clear unguarded path to the basket, but Wright State Coach Brad Brownell signaled to Smith to hold up and dribble out the clock.
When the buzzer sounded the Raiders had knocked off Butler to move into first place in the Horizon League by a half game by a score of 77-65.
The crowd of 10,837 was the largest crowd to see a Wright State game in the 16 year history of the Nutter Center. Maybe even bigger than that is the buzz that his team has created in Dayton.
Wright State has always played second fiddle to the University of Dayton, the much older and more established team on the south side of town. But in just his first year at the helm of the Raiders he has created some real excitement in this basketball-crazy town that seems to have finally embraced Wright State as a winner.
All in a day’s work for Brownell who did the same thing at University of North Carolina-Wilmington where in four years as coach he went 83-40 including two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
When Brownell decided to leave UNC-Wilmington and take up residence In Dayton, Ohio as the new coach of the Raiders, it raised a few eyebrows from the college basketball community. He went from a team that finished the season with a RPI of 37 to a team that had an RPI of about 158.
But he saw an opportunity to build this program into a real winner. He had a great arena, one of the best basketball training facilities in the country, a tired fan base that still averaged over 5000 fans per game even though the team has been only around .500 the last three years. Maybe more importantly, he had an administration willing to get behind his efforts to take this program to the next level.
The Evansville native brought a four-year coaching record of 83-40 to Wright State along with two NCAA Tournament appearances. Last year his team posted a 25-8 mark, where they won the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament beating out 2006 Final Four participant George Mason University.
Brownell played basketball at DePauw and graduated in 1991. When he finally retires from basketball he may challenge former Vice President Dan Quayle as the most famous graduate of DePauw.
Upon graduation he became a graduate assistant at Evansville under Jim Crews where the Purple Aces finished 24-6 winning the MCC Championship and going to the NCAA Tournament.
In 1994 he joined Jerry Wainwright at UNC-Wilmington where he helped him bring the Seahawks into the national sport-light. During his tenure at UNC-Wilmington as an assistant coach they went 136-103 during that eight-year period. including two NCAA and two NIT appearances.
This record led to Brownell to be named the coach when Wainwright left.
What excited Wright State about Brownell besides his winning ways was his clean-cut image and values. It seemed to Wright State that they were getting an Eddie Schilling type squeaky-clean coach that would do a little better in terms of winning than Schilling did.
Schilling coached the Raiders from 1997 to 2003. He probably ran the cleanest program in the country on his way to a 75-93 record. The best he would do was 18 wins as almost everything that could go wrong during his tenure did go wrong. He brought in sparkling student-athletes who would get hurt or get homesick and transfer closer to home or just quit basketball altogether.
Wright State Athletic Director Mike Cusack proudly announced when he hired Brownell, “While Brad’s record is outstanding; it is his character and values that excited us most in making a final decision.”
Brownell is off to a great start with his team headed into the Horizon League Championship as the number one seed, his team is the talk of the town and the crowds at the Nutter Center lately are bigger than ever.
---
Brownell sat down for an in-depth interview that covers almost everything including his past, recruiting, scheduling and even getting into a boxing ring with Bobby Knight,
Bill Kintner: You went from Wilmington where you ended up having a RPI of 37 then you went to Wright State and they that had a RPI of 158 that raised some eyebrows. What brought you to Wright State?
Brad Brownell: One of the factors was a change in leadership at Wilmington. The AD changed a couple of years ago and we just didn’t see eye-to-eye on how some things should be run in the program. Wilmington was a great place I enjoyed it immensely and I had 12 great years. Eight of those years with Coach Wainwright. As an assistant working with him we rebuilt the program and I was able to continue to have success there. My wife and I loved living there. I met a lot of wonderful people, great fans, it was a terrific job and I just had some differences in leadership that were becoming a problem. I was fortunate to have a couple of offers and to be able to look at some different places. I really liked and felt comfortable with the leadership and people here. So I really liked Dr. Goldenberg (president),
Dr. Hopkins (provost) and Dr. Cusack (AD), Bob Grant (Associate AD) and his wife that I met during the interview process. I also met some boosters, including Fred Setzer and Bob Mills and I felt like they were great people. I saw some similarities in terms of a young school that wants to be good in basketball. Wilmington was a little bit like that. It just felt like being back in the Midwest where I’m from, that this could be an area where I would still be able to recruit some and I still have some ties. I just kind of felt like this was a program that was on the move and I would have a chance to do some good things. It just needed a spark and hopefully I’m going to help be that spark.
BK: If you had stayed in Wilmington and you didn’t have problems and everything had worked out--how far could you have taken that program?
www.collegehoopsnet.com/new/story/interview_w_wright_state_head_coach_brad_brownell41564
March 3rd, 2007Interviews, Wright St
By Bill Kintner
DAYTON – Late in the second half as the clock ticked down, the over-flow crowd in the Ervin J. Nutter Center screamed and the students crowded down to the end of the court waiting to start their celebration as the home team Wright State Raiders led the 10th ranked Butler Bulldogs by 12 points.
As Wright State’s Reinaldo Smith streaked past the Raider’s bench with the ball he had a clear unguarded path to the basket, but Wright State Coach Brad Brownell signaled to Smith to hold up and dribble out the clock.
When the buzzer sounded the Raiders had knocked off Butler to move into first place in the Horizon League by a half game by a score of 77-65.
The crowd of 10,837 was the largest crowd to see a Wright State game in the 16 year history of the Nutter Center. Maybe even bigger than that is the buzz that his team has created in Dayton.
Wright State has always played second fiddle to the University of Dayton, the much older and more established team on the south side of town. But in just his first year at the helm of the Raiders he has created some real excitement in this basketball-crazy town that seems to have finally embraced Wright State as a winner.
All in a day’s work for Brownell who did the same thing at University of North Carolina-Wilmington where in four years as coach he went 83-40 including two trips to the NCAA Tournament.
When Brownell decided to leave UNC-Wilmington and take up residence In Dayton, Ohio as the new coach of the Raiders, it raised a few eyebrows from the college basketball community. He went from a team that finished the season with a RPI of 37 to a team that had an RPI of about 158.
But he saw an opportunity to build this program into a real winner. He had a great arena, one of the best basketball training facilities in the country, a tired fan base that still averaged over 5000 fans per game even though the team has been only around .500 the last three years. Maybe more importantly, he had an administration willing to get behind his efforts to take this program to the next level.
The Evansville native brought a four-year coaching record of 83-40 to Wright State along with two NCAA Tournament appearances. Last year his team posted a 25-8 mark, where they won the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament beating out 2006 Final Four participant George Mason University.
Brownell played basketball at DePauw and graduated in 1991. When he finally retires from basketball he may challenge former Vice President Dan Quayle as the most famous graduate of DePauw.
Upon graduation he became a graduate assistant at Evansville under Jim Crews where the Purple Aces finished 24-6 winning the MCC Championship and going to the NCAA Tournament.
In 1994 he joined Jerry Wainwright at UNC-Wilmington where he helped him bring the Seahawks into the national sport-light. During his tenure at UNC-Wilmington as an assistant coach they went 136-103 during that eight-year period. including two NCAA and two NIT appearances.
This record led to Brownell to be named the coach when Wainwright left.
What excited Wright State about Brownell besides his winning ways was his clean-cut image and values. It seemed to Wright State that they were getting an Eddie Schilling type squeaky-clean coach that would do a little better in terms of winning than Schilling did.
Schilling coached the Raiders from 1997 to 2003. He probably ran the cleanest program in the country on his way to a 75-93 record. The best he would do was 18 wins as almost everything that could go wrong during his tenure did go wrong. He brought in sparkling student-athletes who would get hurt or get homesick and transfer closer to home or just quit basketball altogether.
Wright State Athletic Director Mike Cusack proudly announced when he hired Brownell, “While Brad’s record is outstanding; it is his character and values that excited us most in making a final decision.”
Brownell is off to a great start with his team headed into the Horizon League Championship as the number one seed, his team is the talk of the town and the crowds at the Nutter Center lately are bigger than ever.
---
Brownell sat down for an in-depth interview that covers almost everything including his past, recruiting, scheduling and even getting into a boxing ring with Bobby Knight,
Bill Kintner: You went from Wilmington where you ended up having a RPI of 37 then you went to Wright State and they that had a RPI of 158 that raised some eyebrows. What brought you to Wright State?
Brad Brownell: One of the factors was a change in leadership at Wilmington. The AD changed a couple of years ago and we just didn’t see eye-to-eye on how some things should be run in the program. Wilmington was a great place I enjoyed it immensely and I had 12 great years. Eight of those years with Coach Wainwright. As an assistant working with him we rebuilt the program and I was able to continue to have success there. My wife and I loved living there. I met a lot of wonderful people, great fans, it was a terrific job and I just had some differences in leadership that were becoming a problem. I was fortunate to have a couple of offers and to be able to look at some different places. I really liked and felt comfortable with the leadership and people here. So I really liked Dr. Goldenberg (president),
Dr. Hopkins (provost) and Dr. Cusack (AD), Bob Grant (Associate AD) and his wife that I met during the interview process. I also met some boosters, including Fred Setzer and Bob Mills and I felt like they were great people. I saw some similarities in terms of a young school that wants to be good in basketball. Wilmington was a little bit like that. It just felt like being back in the Midwest where I’m from, that this could be an area where I would still be able to recruit some and I still have some ties. I just kind of felt like this was a program that was on the move and I would have a chance to do some good things. It just needed a spark and hopefully I’m going to help be that spark.
BK: If you had stayed in Wilmington and you didn’t have problems and everything had worked out--how far could you have taken that program?
www.collegehoopsnet.com/new/story/interview_w_wright_state_head_coach_brad_brownell41564
