John Brannen

[Crusher58]

I am pro Brannen but this feels too artificial. I think he'll be moving on. Many of you may think that's obvious, but I was holding out for something less cataclysmic.

[Crusher58]

From Jeremy Rauch of Fox 19:

Update on UC basketball situation and John Brannen: Source says no NCAA violations were committed by Brannen or his staff.

Source also says UC admin has yet to interview/speak with Brannen or his staff since the conference title game on March 14.

Bearcats @fox19


Part 2:
From what I understand, Brannen and his staff have been asking for clarification on "allegations" and are hoping to sit down with UC admin.

Interviews with players began before the conference tournament.

very slow process.

Well it would appear they'll have to pay up. If you're moving on, pay your dues.

[CincyBearcats2]

Our AD is a pretty silly guy isn't he?

[Rufus]

From Jeremy Rauch of Fox 19:

Update on UC basketball situation and John Brannen: Source says no NCAA violations were committed by Brannen or his staff.

Source also says UC admin has yet to interview/speak with Brannen or his staff since the conference title game on March 14.

Bearcats @fox19


Part 2:
From what I understand, Brannen and his staff have been asking for clarification on "allegations" and are hoping to sit down with UC admin.

Interviews with players began before the conference tournament.

very slow process.

Very slow process. Snail like slow. No sense of urgency at all. You can't tell me it takes this much time to investigate and they haven t even talked to the coaching staff yet. What the h$all, I was under the assumption all this waiting was to negotiate his release as cheaply as possible. If Cunningham thinks JB can still be effective here now at UC is borderline stupid.This is looking more like a personal vendetta rather than an investigation into infractions.

[MDW79]

If that source is true, and the outside investigation found no violations, I might have to take a break from UC basketball for a bit. Not trying to sound melodramatic, but that's just how I feel right now. Something hasn't sat right with me since this all began. And with each turn it feels like it's getting more and more ridiculous.

Shouldn't your internal investigation provided you with enough info to know it makes sense do go through an outside source to document it? Why in the **** would you make a public statement about an investigation unless you knew it was going to result in violations being found? Why waste the time and money to hire someone to look into this if your own athletic department couldn'tfind anything.

None of this makes any sense. This process should have been very simple from the start. Here are your options:

1.) You want to fire John Brannen, and you know you have provable cause. Fire him ASAP.

2.) You want to fire John Brannen, and you can afford to pay a buyout. Fire him ASAP.

3.) You want to fire John Brannen, but you can't afford to pay buyout. Keep him for another year while you use the time to figure how to proceed.

4.) You like John Brannen. Do nothing.

What you don't do is what we've seen. Try to find bs reasons to get out of paying him what he's owed, and tried to force him into a settlement. Now you've ruined your basketball program for the forseeable future, when you would have been better off just giving him another year to fill out the roster while you come up with a legitimate plan. And who knows, maybe he surprises with his 2021 class and we actually have a decent year next year.

[Crusher58]

Very slow process. Snail like slow. No sense of urgency at all. You can't tell me it takes this much time to investigate and they haven t even talked to the coaching staff yet. What the h$all, I was under the assumption all this waiting was to negotiate his release as cheaply as possible. If Cunningham thinks JB can still be effective here now at UC is borderline stupid.This is looking more like a personal vendetta rather than an investigation into infractions.

He needs the time to sell his solution upstream. Apparently the need to cough up $5 Mil, in Covid times, is a hard sell for him (or anybody).

[CincyBearcats2]

If that source is true, and the outside investigation found no violations, I might have to take a break from UC basketball for a bit. Not trying to sound melodramatic, but that's just how I feel right now. Something hasn't sat right with me since this all began. And with each turn it feels like it's getting more and more ridiculous.

Shouldn't your internal investigation provided you with enough info to know it makes sense do go through an outside source to document it? Why in the **** would you make a public statement about an investigation unless you knew it was going to result in violations being found? Why waste the time and money to hire someone to look into this if your own athletic department couldn'tfind anything.

None of this makes any sense. This process should have been very simple from the start. Here are your options:

1.) You want to fire John Brannen, and you know you have cause. Fire him ASAP.

2.) You want to fire John Brannen even though you know you'll have to pay a buyout. You can afford to pay buyout. Fire him ASAP.

3.) You want to fire John Brannen, but you can't afford to pay buyout. Keep him for another year while you use the time to figure how to proceed.

4.) You like John Brannen. Do nothing.

What you don't do is what we've seen. Try to find bs reasons to get out of paying him what he's owed, and tried to force him into a settlement. Now you've ruined your basketball program for the forseeable future, when you would have been better off just giving him another year to fill out the roster while you come up with a legitimate plan. And who knows, maybe he surprised with his 2021 class and we're actually decent next year.

I am in the boat option 4 but If i was an AD the only reasonable options were 3 and 4. #1 you privately conducted an internal investigation. YOU DO NOT ANNOUNCE AN EXTERNAL INVESTIGATION INTO YOUR OWN PROGRAM IF YOU AREN'T 100% SURE THEY WILL FIND SOMETHING. That is BY FAR the worst possible outcome that could've happened. Announced in a statement that you will be conducting an outside investigation which you are clearly doing because you want him gone only to find NOTHING. Welp that was a dumb*** decision. #2 was never even a possibility to begin with unless a donor wanted to pony up the 5.25 million by himself. Highly doubt that you could convince multiple donors to want to get rid of CJB that bad to where they all pitch in significant amounts. Even if option 1 worked out and we were able to fire him with cause it was still an awful look for the program.

[Crusher58]

If that source is true, and the outside investigation found no violations, I might have to take a break from UC basketball for a bit. Not trying to sound melodramatic, but that's just how I feel right now. Something hasn't sat right with me since this all began. And with each turn it feels like it's getting more and more ridiculous.

Shouldn't your internal investigation provided you with enough info to know it makes sense do go through an outside source to document it? Why in the **** would you make a public statement about an investigation unless you knew it was going to result in violations being found? Why waste the time and money to hire someone to look into this if your own athletic department couldn'tfind anything.

None of this makes any sense. This process should have been very simple from the start. Here are your options:

1.) You want to fire John Brannen, and you know you have provable cause. Fire him ASAP.

2.) You want to fire John Brannen, and you can afford to pay a buyout. Fire him ASAP.

3.) You want to fire John Brannen, but you can't afford to pay buyout. Keep him for another year while you use the time to figure how to proceed.

4.) You like John Brannen. Do nothing.

What you don't do is what we've seen. Try to find bs reasons to get out of paying him what he's owed, and tried to force him into a settlement. Now you've ruined your basketball program for the forseeable future, when you would have been better off just giving him another year to fill out the roster while you come up with a legitimate plan. And who knows, maybe he surprised with his 2021 class and we're actually decent next year.

Lack of maturity at the AD level. Lack of trust upstream when you don't like the coach. It is NOT a requirement that the AD like the coach.

[Rufus]

If your balking at having to pay out what his buyout clause stipulates then you don't spend more money on outside investigators to try and find dirt on the guy. Cunninghams damaging the school way more than Nancy Zimpher ever dreamed of. As one poster said above this exactly how to deliver a doctorate on how to destroy a bball program. I can't believe the BofT' s are allowing this mans name to be drug through the mud if no infractions can be found. MDW79 may be right in walking away as fans. This whole fiasco has been a cluster (you know what)!

[BorisTheCat]

Amen Rufus... You leave your coach out there swinging in the wind allowing the rumor to flow to fill the vacuum of factual information ???!!! THERE IS NO REASON that this is taking so long. You only have so many players to talk to... and if they TRULY have not even spoken to the coaching staff ???!!! WTF. Again... if you got something on the coach... say it. and take whatever action you deem adequate but this cluster is nonsense.

[bobestes]

Would like to point out that the people in charge of this cluster are the people who are responsible for keeping Luke Fickell happy.

Cheers!

[Crusher58]

Would like to point out that the people in charge of this cluster are the people who are responsible for keeping Luke Fickell happy.

Cheers!

Thanks for that!

[GoBearcats31]

Consider the source on the above from Jeremy Rauch. Clearly someone in JB’s camp.

Hopefully this gets wrapped up sooner or later. Best if both sides move on, but obviously understand the financial implications and that it’s not as easy as just agreeing to disagree and quickly settling up (unless some detail emerges we didn’t know about).

From WLWT’s Brandon Saho:
Cincinnati’s John Brannen has not been placed on administrative leave, per sources. As first reported by @FOX19Jeremy, Brannen and UC AD John Cunningham have yet to meet in person. A source tells me a meeting after the AAC title game was canceled. #Bearcats

[Rufus]

That's my point! You can bet that LF is keeping a close eye on this mess. If its true that no allegations are forthcoming and all this is just that JC doesn't like JB how secure do you think LF feels right about now.

[JohnFrancis]

Not quite sure what exactly is going on with the head basketball coach, but I certainly question this culture of moving on (too quickly) with coaches and players.

Porter Moser made the news today. Got a huge payday at Oklahoma. Look at his bio - he had several very rough years at other schools and I think was fired at Illinois State.

Legendary Virginia Tech football coach, Frank Beamer, had an extremely rough start in Blacksburg - if he had the same start to his career today he probably wouldn't last two seasons.

I think the NY Jets should give Sam Darnold another year to prove himself rather than spending a top 3 pick on a QB.

I don't think Coach K. set the world on fire at Duke his first 2 or three years - and contrary to popular belief he took over a very solid program - he did not inheirit a rebuild situation.

I could give many other examples, but you get the picture. Sometimes patience pays...