John Brannen

[GoBearcats31]

Legal analysis from Michael McCann, formerly of SI

https://www.sportico.com/law/analysi...ti-1234630368/

[leo from jersey]

From the Brannen document. Make out what you want of this:
13.

With help from private donors, UC has invested heavily in its basketball programfor many years. For instance, recent expenditures to support Bearcats basketball include an $87million, privately funded renovation of Fifth Third Arena, the home court of the Bearcats since1989
14.

Wealthy Bearcats fans
–

known as “boosters” –
spend considerable sums of moneyto support Bearcats football and basketball. The most significant donors to Bearcats sports wield powerful influence over key decisions
about Bearcats athletics. For the most part, however, UC’s
b
boosters defer to the Athletics Director (“AD”) to make those decisions.

[leo from jersey]

It is also interesting that the document compared Brannen's experience with Cunningham's after stating "Director Cunningham is not the first AD who has tried to stiff a head coach by
creating bogus grounds for terminating the coach’s employment contract" .

The document questioned JC's unusual reporting system. It was toan assistant and not directly to JC


20
SL 4365046.1
perform, including supervising Coach Brannen and otherwise overseeing the men
’
s basketball program.58.

Bowes never expressed concerns to Coach Brannen about his coaching style,workout protocols, practices or team management. Instead, in his most recent evaluation of Coach
Brannen’s
job performance prior to his termination, Bowes had nothing but praise for Coach
Brannen and described his leadership as “exemplary.”

It spoke of another Mr Bob Magine , Head of sports medicine as having a major role in the bb program and then stated " He was not a Doctor"

Mangine’s level of influence and control over the basketball team’s workouts and
practices was greater than anything Coach Brannen had encountered in his twenty years coaching basketball before becoming head coach at UC.62.

Coach Brannen acce
pted Mangine’s input and involvement in overseeing theteam’s physical activities and mental health.
63.

In mid-
August 2020, Tyler Stuart (“Stuart”)
was hired as
the team’s
new Strengthand Conditioning Coach.64.

Notwithstanding the fact that his salary came out of the
men’s basketball
coaching
staff salary pool allotted to Coach Brannen, Stuart reported to Maggie McKinley (“McKinley”),
the Senior AD who oversees the UC Athletics Compliance
Department (“UC Compliance”)
.Unlike Coach Brannen, McKinley reported directly to Director Cunningham.65.

McKinley is no stranger to litigation. In 2018, she was named as a defendant in herindividual and official capacities in a civil rights lawsuit by a former student-athlete allegingclaims for racial/color discrimination, sex discrimination and harassment and retaliation under 42U.S.C. § 2000(e)
et seq.
,

42 U.S.C. § 1981
et seq.
and Ohio law, as well as claims for intentionalinfliction of emotional distress, in connection w
ith her removal from UC’s women’s volleyball
team.
See
Ifeanyi v. Molly Alvey, Maggie McKinley and University of Cincinnati, Case No. 1:18-

CV-00193 (March 20, 2018 S.D. Ohio).
In May 2020, McKinley’s actions were the subject of
another civil rights lawsuit by a former student athlete alleging that she was unlawfully removed
from UC’s women’s volleyball team in retaliation because she “stood up for herself and her fellowteammates…”

[leo from jersey]

IMPORTANT

NOW GO AND READ SECTION 66 -77 for some very very compelling statements if true. Look at 75 and 76

seems like more is coming out

These can be fodder in a legal document, but if true, there sure is a mess going on. Thankfully CLF is too big for these games now if true.

[leo from jersey]

92.

During his two-year tenure at UC, Coach Brannen never once received anadmonishment letter for a TMP violation.93.

Regardless whether they related to CARA, TMP or some other minor infraction,the four (4) Secondary/Level III and Level IV violations self-reported by UC Compliance during
Coach Brannen’s tenure
were not material and therefore did not provide Director Cunningham anylegitimate grounds to terminate Coach
Brannen’s employment “
for cause.

[leo from jersey]

This goes on about JC using staff and then a private meeting with two freshmen. You should read the document. I know there hasn't been a rebuttal yet, but it is not good and sadly, this may go on not only at UC, but other places as well.

[leo from jersey]

If some of the document is true especially the part of some players part and one player's defense of Mr. Brannen. CWM will have a job to get the players to all play nicely together. Forget about this year's recruiting as Coach has quite the job in front of him.

[leo from jersey]

Per Kevin Koeninger (https://twitter.com/kkoeninger44/) of Courthouse News:
- 66 page complaint
- Claims UC conducted a "sham investigation" as a "smokescreen" to avoid paying the $5M buyout
- Filed by attorney Mechelle Zhou
- Says the AD and president used the investigation to "develop pre-textual reasons" to fire the coach and avoid paying the buyout
- Brannen says he was not given an opportunity to rebut the allegations or review the investigation

(On par with what we would have expected, wonder if there is any other juicy Tom Mars details...)
Here is the attorney - based out of Toledo https://www.shumaker.com/professiona...mechelle-zarou

there is plenty and if true the department is in a mess. As I said earlier, CLF is too big for these games as of now. I sure hope he is the one who stays. Not all might be true, but if some statements are - we will have plenty to comment on and not just on the actual playing of the on court games. Here is hoping CWM is up to the job. Here is hoping that the deep pockets stay behind him in this mess. They knew the mess when CWM was hired, now they need to back him for the future of the program.

[GoBearcats31]

If some of the document is true especially the part of some players part and one player's defense of Mr. Brannen. CWM will have a job to get the players to all play nicely together. Forget about this year's recruiting as Coach has quite the job in front of him.

Leo, where can we view the Complaint? I haven’t seen the document but would like to read it.

UPDATE here it is
https://www.scribd.com/document/5088...uit-against-UC

[leo from jersey]

After reading the document, I am left wondering about David D's statement made during this mess. Especially about his teammates, as he does distribute the ball. I also wonder about D.D. and MS playing time during the latter part of the season before DD left. At least there was no police horse punching. Then again, perhaps two wrongs never make a right.

[ucmba2002]

After reading it, a couple of things stuck out to me.

- JB claim seems pretty weak. Based on a lot of hearsay and conspiracies. Why ask for a jury trial unless you need to inject emotion into your case?

- JB knows he will not be landing a coaching gig anywhere else soon. He named players staff etc with wording that seems aggressive.

- The whole deal where he says Mason was conspiring against him is just odd. Mason already tweeted about it. I am not a fan of coaches going after student athletes, especially in public.

Overall glad we moved on to Wes. Regardless of what was true vs. false, one thing for certain was the environment was not conducive for UC to win tourney games.

[Lobot]

After reading it, a couple of things stuck out to me.

- JB claim seems pretty weak. Based on a lot of hearsay and conspiracies. Why ask for a jury trial unless you need to inject emotion into your case?

- JB knows he will not be landing a coaching gig anywhere else soon. He named players staff etc with wording that seems aggressive.

- The whole deal where he says Mason was conspiring against him is just odd. Mason already tweeted about it. I am not a fan of coaches going after student athletes, especially in public.

Overall glad we moved on to Wes. Regardless of what was true vs. false, one thing for certain was the environment was not conducive for UC to win tourney games.

I think he’s asking for a jury trial so his legal team can attempt to seat a clueless jury that might actually back him up. I’m trying to remember the Jim O’Brien v OSU case that McCann cited and it seems like that was complete screw up by the jury if memory serves.

My opinion is that Brannen is/was so stressed by everything going on with his life and job, that he got paranoid. If he’s going to go after the players he’ll end up on the short end of the stick. The kids will launch his *** into orbit on social media if they talk.

[Rufus]

The more one reads into this the more it seems exactly what we thought initially in that these were elite AAU athletes who were told by people who they should not have listened to that as gifted athletes they shouldnt have to work as hard as others do. The isolation and the confinement of covid aided in facilitating these ideas and feelings. Plus with dysfunction within the coaching staff it just exasperated a perfect storm. I wanted to like Brannen when he was first hired and still think he's a good coach but allowing another coach to influence the players and exert control over the program is a mistake that should never had happened. Any DI coach knows that his ultimate supervisor is the AD and if JC did not voluntarily oversee the practices then Brannen should have been giving reports to him anyway, especially when it was first noticed that Stuart was guilty of trying to force his influence. I think that falls under failing to control if anything else. Brannen just got stuck in the middle of the politics that exist just about everywhere one works, a rookie mistake for sure. Brannen should have been going overboard to make these kids aware of who was genuinely concerned for their health. Kids are the same no matter what and will always prefer to do what they want rather than what they have to do first and will try as hard as possible to get their way and found the perfect confidant. And a coach (Stuart) that uses that to promote his own agenda needs to be outed. I don't anticipate the strength and conditioning coach MR and CWM being at odds with each other going forward.

[John P]

My opinion is that Brannen is/was so stressed by everything going on with his life and job, that he got paranoid. If he’s going to go after the players he’ll end up on the short end of the stick. The kids will launch his *** into orbit on social media if they talk.

I agree with this and I'm just glad he's gone. I personally think the job was just to big for him.
Last year I wasn't going to pay anything extra to watch any of the games (via ESPN+) Not necause I didn't want to see the team play but because I didn't like the products that was being delivered.
This year it's a different story already, I plan on doing whatever I have to so I can watch as many games as possible.

[longtimefan]

I had ESPN+ but dropped it at the end of the season. I'll pick it up again in the fall.