Texas Tech has been selected as No. 3 seed in the West Region of the NCAA Tournament and will face Northern Kentucky in Tulsa this Friday. The head coach of the Northern Kentucky Norse is John Brannen.

Brannen is the fifth head coach to lead the Northern Kentucky basketball program and has led the Norse since the 2015-16 season. Since then, the Norse have had several accomplishments including the 2018 Horizon League regular season title, the 2017 conference tournament title and NCAA and NIT tournament appearances in the first two years Northern Kentucky has had Division I status, something no other Division I program has done.

One of the first players recruited by Brannen, Lavone Holland II, helped lead the Norse to the 2017 Horizon League Tournament championship. That day, Northern Kentucky defeated Milwaukee, 59-53, and earned an NCAA Tournament berth. In the conference championship game, Holland scored 20 points and collected six rebounds while also getting two steals, four assists and one block. Holland had shot 7-15 from the field, 2-6 on three-pointers and 4-6 on free throws. His performances throughout the tournament led him to be named the tournament’s MVP.

The following year, Brannen led his team to a conference regular season title and a berth in the NIT.

It was not all success for Brannen. In his first year at the helm, Brannen’s Northern Kentucky team went 9-21 in the 2015-16 season and capped off the season with a seven-game losing streak. The Norse were also 5-13 in conference play. Brannen’s team improved drastically the following year with an overall record of 24-11 and a conference record of 12-6. In the 2017-18 season, the Norse went 22-10 overall and 15-3 in conference. This season, the Norse continued an upward trend as they finished the season 26-8 overall and 13-5 in conference play. The Norse again won the Horizon League Tournament title after defeating the No. 1 seeded Wright State, 77-66.

Before having the head coaching role at Northern Kentucky, Brannen was at Alabama from the 2009-10 season to the 2014-15 season. He started off as an assistant coach before becoming the associate head coach and even served as the interim head coach in the 2015 NIT Tournament.

Brannen also served assistant coaching roles at Virginia Commonwealth, St. Bonaventure, Eastern Kentucky and College of Charleston. Over the course of his coaching career, four of his previous players have gone to play in the NBA which are JaMychal Green, Eric Maynor, Tony Mitchell and Larry Sanders.

Overall, Brannen has a 56-43 coaching record and has made one NCAA Tournament appearance in the 2016-17 season, until now. The last time Northern Kentucky was in the tournament, the Norse lost to Kentucky, 79-70, in the first round.