JOHN BRANNEN / ASSISTANT COACH

John Brannen is entering his first year as an assistant coach under Anthony Grant at Virginia Commonwealth University. Brannen comes to VCU after spending three years serving in the same capacity at Atlantic-10 member St. Bonaventure. 

In addition to his coaching duties at St. Bonaventure, Brannen was also actively involved in coordinating the Bonnies’ world-wide recruiting plan.  In his first recruiting season, Brannen helped add six new student-athletes to the rapidly growing St. Bonaventure-program.

Prior to joining the Bonnies, Brannen spent three years as the top assistant at Eastern Kentucky, where he helped attract back-to-back recruiting classes ranked among the top-100 in the nation by Hoop Scoop.  With the Colonels, Brannen was responsible for recruiting, academic mentoring, scheduling, the program’s summer camps, along with strength and conditioning.

Before taking the post at EKU, Brannen spent the 1999-00 season at the University of Charleston as an assistant under Jayson Gee, helping the Golden Eagles to a 28-4 mark and an appearance in the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

Brannen is a 1996 graduate of Marshall, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration and graduated with honors.  He was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist in the state of West Virginia and received postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and the Southern Conference. The 6-8 forward, who played under Grant with the Thundering Herd, led the league in scoring during his senior season (1996-97), averaging 20.9 points per game.  He was also named the Southern Conference Tournament Most Valuable Player.  Brannen, who began his collegiate career at Morehead State before transferring to Marhshall, completed his two seasons as a member of the Thundering Herd squad with 1,008 points.

Following his graduation from Marshall, Brannen played two seasons of professional basketball in Belgium's First Division, where he was named an all-star and also served as a player-coach.