The first stuff we've really gotten other than official releases and documents from someone inside the AD. https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

Anyone want to still defend this scumbag and badmouth the university for tarnishing his reputation? He should never again be the head coach of a basketball program.

Edit: Mark beat me to it.

"F*** the heart monitor. I know what in shape is," is one hell of a quote .

Interesting that it appears there was investigation happening in Summer 2020 .. basically a year after he was hired. Was there no due diligence done when hiring him? It would be an extremely tough legal argument that Brannen magically became this a-hole when he started working at Cincy. It's fairly obvious he shouldn't be coaching ... with that said .. is there enough there to walk away scott free without paying him a buyout? That's a tougher argument.

(05-05-2021 09:28 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  Interesting that it appears there was investigation happening in Summer 2020 .. basically a year after he was hired. Was there no due diligence done when hiring him? It would be an extremely tough legal argument that Brannen magically became this a-hole when he started working at Cincy. It's fairly obvious he shouldn't be coaching ... with that said .. is there enough there to walk away scott free without paying him a buyout? That's a tougher argument.

Cunningham didn't hire him. Our previous AD Mike Bohn did. Half assed search after President Pinto wouldn't allow him to hire Frank Martin (thank god). Only two candidates were ever interviewed: Darren Savino (Mick's top assistant) and Brannen.

(05-05-2021 09:32 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:28 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  Interesting that it appears there was investigation happening in Summer 2020 .. basically a year after he was hired. Was there no due diligence done when hiring him? It would be an extremely tough legal argument that Brannen magically became this a-hole when he started working at Cincy. It's fairly obvious he shouldn't be coaching ... with that said .. is there enough there to walk away scott free without paying him a buyout? That's a tougher argument.

Cunningham didn't hire him. Our previous AD Mike Bohn did. Half assed search after President Pinto wouldn't allow him to hire Frank Martin (thank god). Only two candidates were ever interviewed: Darren Savino (Mick's top assistant) and Brannen.

That makes a lot more sense. Might not be enough to win a court battle but makes sense from a logistic standpoint

Him being at odds with Bob Mangine is telling to me. Some people will likely focus only on the conditioning part of practice and talk about 'old school toughness' and 'sprints'. Bob Mangine is an awesome trainer and UC has invested a ton into research about athlete science.

I've been at Cronin practices before, so I know for a fact that they were absolutely brutal sometimes. But Cronin constantly listened to the medical staff (led by Bob) because he understood that there is a point reached where more harm is done than good. I guess John thought he was the smartest guy in the room.

Then there is the weird stuff, like John telling employees to walk through the training room to make sure Bob isn't there before he goes in. That's a little psychotic.

Anyway, my basic takeaway is this. Some of the player complaints are immature and stupid. But so what? They're young players, they don't know any better. You're their leader. It's your job to motivate and push them in a way they respond to, build a level of respect that allows for give and take. The players need to trust you so that when you push them hard, they respond. John sucked really bad as a leader. What's worse, some of the stuff he did makes him look like a psychopath.

Sorry to tarnish his 'good name' though.

(05-05-2021 09:28 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  Interesting that it appears there was investigation happening in Summer 2020 .. basically a year after he was hired. Was there no due diligence done when hiring him? It would be an extremely tough legal argument that Brannen magically became this a-hole when he started working at Cincy. It's fairly obvious he shouldn't be coaching ... with that said .. is there enough there to walk away scott free without paying him a buyout? That's a tougher argument.

UC is going to be leaning very heavily on the clauses in his contract under firing for cause that talks about student athlete wellness and such. It talks about not harming the welfare of student athletes and not to engage in conduct as such, etc. I don't know the exact wording.

No idea how it will turn out. Law isn't my area. I'd guess settlement, but UC already apparently tried that allegedly and Brannen seems dead set on the full amount (seems very on brand for him having read this document now).

(05-05-2021 09:48 AM)stxrunner Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:28 AM)Stickboy46 Wrote:  Interesting that it appears there was investigation happening in Summer 2020 .. basically a year after he was hired. Was there no due diligence done when hiring him? It would be an extremely tough legal argument that Brannen magically became this a-hole when he started working at Cincy. It's fairly obvious he shouldn't be coaching ... with that said .. is there enough there to walk away scott free without paying him a buyout? That's a tougher argument.

UC is going to be leaning very heavily on the clauses in his contract under firing for cause that talks about student athlete wellness and such. It talks about not harming the welfare of student athletes and not to engage in conduct as such, etc. I don't know the exact wording.

No idea how it will turn out. Law isn't my area. I'd guess settlement, but UC already apparently tried that allegedly and Brannen seems dead set on the full amount (seems very on brand for him having read this document now).

Yea, i'm no lawyer either. Just reading through all of that posted screams he's an ahole but even the wellness part might be hard to prove breach of contract. Him running his mouth to others doesn't mean he ACTUALLY put anyone's wellness at risk.

For instance the heart rate monitor quote is as absolutely horrible sound bite. The question becomes did he actually tell someone "Hey, I don't care if your heart rate monitor says you need to stop, you need to get on the line and run right now" and then actually forces the kid to do it. That's a different scenario than him whining about heart rate monitor restrictions. He's still an a-hole that shouldn't be coaching and UC made the right move firing him. Just does it constitute breach of contract to not pay a buyout. That's tough.

(05-05-2021 08:23 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

Anyone want to still defend this scumbag and badmouth the university for tarnishing his reputation? He should never again be the head coach of a basketball program.

Edit: Mark beat me to it.

i mean this in the nicest way possible... again not an insult or jab

you and Bearcatmark have never played or coached a sport in your life...you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

this entire article just proved brannan was being spied on from the start and he got paranoid.. the article itself noted this ...

Quote:oldest date listed in the document is Aug. 7, 2020, which suggests that either the university was monitoring Brannen’s conduct prior to the official start of his second season at Cincinnati or that the athletic department employee reconstructed a timeline of Brannen’s alleged conduct after the fact

it confirms there was a some kind of inner athletic department war between brannen and cunnighman

Quote: “very anxious over this situation because I felt I would be caught in the middle … I felt that I was in a position to get fired by John Brannen or by UC administration.”

it confirms Brannen was kept in the dark on many situations ..

everything about the running is a joke...all the off the cuff comments are a joke... I guarantee you houston practices are worse, I guarantee you if you spied on Sampson every private practice for months you'll catch some off the cuff statement here and there.... this whole thing is a joke.. you could make every coach in the nation look crazy to none sports people if you spied on every practice

I pray UH never gets an AD like this... i pray that we dont put our coaches in situations like this

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

Amazingly tone deaf...

(05-05-2021 10:04 AM)Billy Bob Bearcat Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

Amazingly tone deaf...

When this is where he goes, you know he lost.

(05-05-2021 10:04 AM)Billy Bob Bearcat Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

Amazingly tone deaf...

ive played and coached for half my life... no one who has actually been to a practice would look at this and feel any sorta way...
i saw on social media a few UC fans were saying the same thing who played sports

wes millers whole MO is physically and intense defense that WILL require a ton of conditioning, im curious how that whole thing is going to work.. if the bar is players going to the ground even in preseason workouts when they arent in shape yet

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:23 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

Anyone want to still defend this scumbag and badmouth the university for tarnishing his reputation? He should never again be the head coach of a basketball program.

Edit: Mark beat me to it.

i mean this in the nicest way possible... again not an insult or jab

you and Bearcatmark have never played or coached a sport in your life...you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

this entire article just proved brannan was being spied on from the start and he got paranoid.. the article itself noted this ...

Quote:oldest date listed in the document is Aug. 7, 2020, which suggests that either the university was monitoring Brannen’s conduct prior to the official start of his second season at Cincinnati or that the athletic department employee reconstructed a timeline of Brannen’s alleged conduct after the fact

it confirms there was a some kind of inner athletic department war between brannen and cunnighman

Quote: “very anxious over this situation because I felt I would be caught in the middle … I felt that I was in a position to get fired by John Brannen or by UC administration.”

it confirms Brannen was kept in the dark on many situations ..

everything about the running is a joke...all the off the cuff comments are a joke... I guarantee you houston practices are worse, I guarantee you if you spied on Sampson every private practice for months you'll catch some off the cuff statement here and there.... this whole thing is a joke.. I you could every coach in the nation look crazy to none sports people if you spied on every practice

I pray UH never gets an AD like this... i pray that we dont put our coaches in situations like this

You continue to show your ignorance in a truly unprecedented way. It's not about hard practices. Cronin, Huggins, Sampson, etc, tons of others coaches. They all run their guys hard. That's not the issue. The issue is that Brannen was allegedly purposefully subverting the medical science UC uses in the student athlete programs. The EXACT same ones that Cronin used as well, which he followed. Bob Mangine and Cronin had a great relationship. You think Cronin's teams were soft? LOL.

Look, the AD is a compliance dweeb so if you want to argue he didn't handle this super well during the actual firing process, I can hear that argument. But his monitoring of the program was clearly a result of troubling things he was hearing in the program and what had been going on under Brannen.

This right here is a great example:

That's Prince Toyambi's wife, who had a heart condition issue while at UC and had to have heart surgery.

You are being insanely ignorant at this point. Give it an effing rest.

(05-05-2021 10:08 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 10:04 AM)Billy Bob Bearcat Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

Amazingly tone deaf...

ive played and coached for half my life... no one who has actually been to a practice would look at this and feel any sorta way...
i saw on social media a few UC fans were saying the same thing who payed sports

wes millers whole MO is physically and intense defense that WILL require a ton of conditioning, im curious how that whole thing is going to work.. if the bar is players going to the ground even in preseason workouts when they arent in shape yet

The bar is not listening to your medical staff when they tell you there is an issue. Everybody knows conditioning is a key part of basketball. You're really going to incredible lengths to ignore where the actual concern is.

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:23 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

Anyone want to still defend this scumbag and badmouth the university for tarnishing his reputation? He should never again be the head coach of a basketball program.

Edit: Mark beat me to it.

i mean this in the nicest way possible... again not an insult or jab

you and Bearcatmark have never played or coached a sport in your life...you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

this entire article just proved brannan was being spied on from the start and he got paranoid.. the article itself noted this ...

Quote:oldest date listed in the document is Aug. 7, 2020, which suggests that either the university was monitoring Brannen’s conduct prior to the official start of his second season at Cincinnati or that the athletic department employee reconstructed a timeline of Brannen’s alleged conduct after the fact

it confirms there was a some kind of inner athletic department war between brannen and cunnighman

Quote: “very anxious over this situation because I felt I would be caught in the middle … I felt that I was in a position to get fired by John Brannen or by UC administration.”

it confirms Brannen was kept in the dark on many situations ..

everything about the running is a joke...all the off the cuff comments are a joke... I guarantee you houston practices are worse, I guarantee you if you spied on Sampson every private practice for months you'll catch some off the cuff statement here and there.... this whole thing is a joke.. you could make every coach in the nation look crazy to none sports people if you spied on every practice

I pray UH never gets an AD like this... i pray that we dont put our coaches in situations like this

You’re a idiot. I played basketball my whole life. It’s one thing to condition, it’s another to endanger UNPAID athletes.

Like john Brannen saying “**** the heart rate monitors...) well those heart rate monitors saved Prince Toyambi’s life.

If Houston practices are worse then John’s and he refuses them to be able to bend over or refuses water, and if one of the athletes die, then Kelvin Sampson should be charged with murder.

You can coach basketball. He absolutely demanding and yet trust your medical staff. Mick Cronin always trusted Bob Mangene
And he ran tough practices.

Huge difference between a hard practice and the complete disregard for your student athletes well being.

Just stop commenting on UC basketball dude. Your a know it all who will take any stand that’s against UC basketball. Just like you questioned the John Brannen hire. Now you are defending him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 08:23 AM)JFlight21 Wrote:  https://andywittry.substack.com/p/univer...ce=twitter

Anyone want to still defend this scumbag and badmouth the university for tarnishing his reputation? He should never again be the head coach of a basketball program.

Edit: Mark beat me to it.

i mean this in the nicest way possible... again not an insult or jab

you and Bearcatmark have never played or coached a sport in your life...you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

this entire article just proved brannan was being spied on from the start and he got paranoid.. the article itself noted this ...

Quote:oldest date listed in the document is Aug. 7, 2020, which suggests that either the university was monitoring Brannen’s conduct prior to the official start of his second season at Cincinnati or that the athletic department employee reconstructed a timeline of Brannen’s alleged conduct after the fact

it confirms there was a some kind of inner athletic department war between brannen and cunnighman

Quote: “very anxious over this situation because I felt I would be caught in the middle … I felt that I was in a position to get fired by John Brannen or by UC administration.”

it confirms Brannen was kept in the dark on many situations ..

everything about the running is a joke...all the off the cuff comments are a joke... I guarantee you houston practices are worse, I guarantee you if you spied on Sampson every private practice for months you'll catch some off the cuff statement here and there.... this whole thing is a joke.. you could make every coach in the nation look crazy to none sports people if you spied on every practice

I pray UH never gets an AD like this... i pray that we dont put our coaches in situations like this

I could care less what you think about what I have or haven't experienced as an athlete or coach. Practices are difficult in high school, college, etc. If they aren't, I'm sure your team is terrible. I think we all understand this. But for the sake of this back and forth it's far more important that you continue to focus on one thing and one thing only: players running sprints to get in shape.

Those last two paragraphs you typed are remarkable and even more so that you actually believe it! We had a player (Prince Toyambi) in the fall of 2019 (Brannen's first year) whose life was saved by the training staff and the heart monitors. And then this past August, the head trainer's high school grandson died after a soccer conditioning drill (go read the story about Matt Mangine, it's heartbreaking). But you decide it's Brannen's instinct for comedy that drove these remarks! Get a clue.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/pare...r-BB15GibO

(05-05-2021 10:11 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 10:08 AM)pesik Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 10:04 AM)Billy Bob Bearcat Wrote:  

(05-05-2021 09:54 AM)pesik Wrote:  you never actually been to a basketball practice higher than middle school... my middle school aau practices were rougher than thins

Amazingly tone deaf...

ive played and coached for half my life... no one who has actually been to a practice would look at this and feel any sorta way...
i saw on social media a few UC fans were saying the same thing who payed sports

wes millers whole MO is physically and intense defense that WILL require a ton of conditioning, im curious how that whole thing is going to work.. if the bar is players going to the ground even in preseason workouts when they arent in shape yet

The bar is not listening to your medical staff when they tell you there is an issue. Everybody knows conditioning is a key part of basketball. You're really going to incredible lengths to ignore where the actual concern is.

the bar was given in the article... that 2 players went to the ground and almost collapsed...
that happens literally everywhere, in every preseason workout.. our players publicly talk about the "horrors" of october conditioning month.. release and take picture of players needing medical help and collapsed.. preseason works are hell for everyone

your entire point is like when they caught coach izzo cursing out a player and being aggressive with him... and you saying im going to incredible lengths to ignore the emotional abuse....and everyone telling you that is just how it is..(which is what actually happened with the Izzo thing, the media tried to make it a thing and every player/coach said that is part of the game and everywhere)

you are bound make this into UC was right.. no reason will reach you... you highlighted that quote from brannen acting like everyone doesnt say dumbthings in private.. if that was the worst they came up with after spying on him FOR MONTHS, it honestly isnt that bad...
you purposely didnt answer the question i asked earlier because it countered you very logic....

(05-05-2021 10:22 AM)justinhub2003 Wrote:  You’re a idiot. I played basketball my whole life. It’s one thing to condition, it’s another to endanger UNPAID athletes.


Just stop commenting on UC basketball dude. Your a know it all who will take any stand that’s against UC basketball. Just like you questioned the John Brannen hire. Now you are defending him.

1) i dontcare that you fired him.... why do you keep coming back to the point like im defending his coaching ability... the whole convo is about HOW you fired him.. i questioned brannen basketball ability. i never said to make him into a monster

2) so in your high school practices.. you never had to do sprints where players went to the ground or almost collapsed .. this was a common thing literally everywhere ive been especially preseason stuff