Bradley Robert Brownell (born November 15, 1968) is an American
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
coach and most recently the previous head basketball coach at
Clemson University
Clemson University () is a public land-grant research university in Clemson, South Carolina. Founded in 1889, Clemson is the second-largest university in the student population in South Carolina. For the fall 2019 semester, the university enro ...
. Prior to coming to Clemson, he held the same position at
Wright State and
UNC Wilmington
The University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW or UNC Wilmington) is a public research university in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina System and enrolls 17,499 undergraduate and graduate students eac ...
. He has most recently coached his 13th season at Clemson, losing in the first round of the NIT tournament to Morehead State.
Early life
Born in
Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in ...
, Brownell played high school basketball at William Henry Harrison High School with current
Indiana Pacers
The Indiana Pacers are an American professional basketball team based in Indianapolis. The Pacers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division. The Pacers were first esta ...
assistant of player development and Indiana University player
Calbert Cheaney
Calbert Nathaniel Cheaney (born July 17, 1971) is an American basketball coach and former player who serves as assistant coach for the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He starred as a player for the Indiana Hoosiers fro ...
. Brownell graduated from
DePauw University
DePauw University is a private liberal arts university in Greencastle, Indiana. It has an enrollment of 1,972 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the G ...
in 1991, where he was a member of the basketball team
[ and the ]Sigma Chi
Sigma Chi () International Fraternity is one of the largest North American fraternal literary societies. The fraternity has 244 active (undergraduate) chapters and 152 alumni chapters across the United States and Canada and has initiated more tha ...
fraternity. He immediately went into coaching after graduating. His junior year, Brownell helped lead the Tigers to the NCAA Division III National Championship, where he missed a shot to win the game. He spent one season as an assistant to Jim Crews
James S. Crews (born February 14, 1954) is an American former men's college basketball coach for Saint Louis University. He was promoted to head coach after serving on an interim basis following the health concerns and eventual death of former Bil ...
at the University of Evansville
The University of Evansville (UE) is a private university in Evansville, Indiana. It was founded in 1854 as Moores Hill College. The university operates a satellite center, Harlaxton College, in Grantham, England.
UE offers more than 80 differ ...
, then spent the next two seasons as an assistant on his former coach Royce Waltman's staff at the University of Indianapolis
The University of Indianapolis (UIndy) is a private United Methodist Church-affiliated university in Indianapolis, Indiana. It offers Associate, Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral degrees. It was founded in 1902 as Indiana Central University and ...
while earning his master's degree.
Coaching career
Upon completing his master's degree in 1994, Brownell began his tenure at UNC Wilmington as an assistant to then-head coach Jerry Wainwright
Gerald Charles Wainwright Jr. (born February 11, 1947) is a retired American basketball coach. Wainwright served as the head men's basketball coach at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNC Wilmington) from 1994 to 2002, the Universit ...
.USC Trojans
The USC Trojans are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Southern California (USC), located in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. While the men's teams are nicknamed the ' ...
in the first round of the 2002 NCAA tournament.
UNC Wilmington
Following that season, Wainwright left Wilmington to take over at Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
, and Brownell was promoted to head coach.
During his time as the Seahawks' head coach, Brownell led the Seahawks to Colonial Athletic Association
The Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division I whose full members are located in East Coast states from Massachusetts to South Carolina. Most of its members are public universi ...
titles and NCAA Tournament berths in 2003
File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...
and 2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...
, narrowly losing in the First Round each season. For his efforts, Brownell was named CAA Coach of the Year in 2003 and 2006. In his four years, the Seahawks never finished below .500, and the 2005–2006 season produced a school-record 25 wins.
Wright State
Following the 2006 season, Brownell left UNC Wilmington to take the head coach's job at Wright State, where he made an immediate impact. In his first season at Wright State, Brownell led the Raiders to their first-ever Horizon League
The Horizon League is an 11-school collegiate athletic conference in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I, whose members are located in and near the Great Lakes region.
The Horizon League founded in 1979 as the Midw ...
title, beating out nationally ranked Butler
A butler is a person who works in a house serving and is a domestic worker in a large household. In great houses, the household is sometimes divided into departments with the butler in charge of the dining room, wine cellar, and pantry. Some a ...
, coached by fellow DePauw graduate Brad Stevens
Bradley Kent Stevens (born October 22, 1976) is an American basketball executive and former coach who is currently the president of basketball operations for the Boston Celtics.
Born and raised in Zionsville, Indiana, Stevens starred on the Zio ...
, to capture both the regular season and tournament titles. The Raiders earned the 14th seed in the West Region, and lost in the first round of the 2007 NCAA tournament to Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...
. The team's 23 wins was a school record on the Division I level. He was named the NABC District 10 coach of the year for being the best college coach in Ohio and Indiana.
Brownell remained head coach at Wright State through the 2010 season. His teams never finished lower than third in conference play, but he was unable to return the Raiders to postseason play. However, he did lead the team to three straight 20 win seasons.
Clemson
On April 23, 2010, Brownell was named head coach at Clemson, replacing Oliver Purnell
Oliver Gordon Purnell Jr. (born May 19, 1953) is an American former college basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Radford University from 1988 to 1991, Old Dominion University from 1991 to 1994, the University of Dayto ...
.
Brownell led the Tigers
The tiger (''Panthera tigris'') is the largest living cat species and a member of the genus ''Panthera''. It is most recognisable for its dark vertical stripes on orange fur with a white underside. An apex predator, it primarily preys on un ...
to the NCAA tournament in his first year at the school. The Tigers defeated UAB in the First Four, but lost in the Second Round to West Virginia
West Virginia is a state in the Appalachian, Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States.The Census Bureau and the Association of American Geographers classify West Virginia as part of the Southern United States while the Bur ...
. After two subpar years, the Tigers returned to postseason play in 2014
File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...
earning an NIT bid and reaching the semifinals.
The next three years saw the Tigers finishing within three games of .500 each year and in the lower half of the ACC, but they did receive an NIT bid in 2017
File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...
, losing in the first round.
On March 20, 2017, the school announced that Brownell would return as head coach for at least one more year. During the 2017–18 season, Brownell lead the Tigers to their first 20 win season since 2013–14. The Tigers finished 11–7 in ACC play, which left them tied for third in the ACC. The Tigers were selected as a #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, and made it to the Sweet 16, where they lost to #1 seed Kansas
Kansas () is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its capital is Topeka, and its largest city is Wichita. Kansas is a landlocked state bordered by Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the ...
.
On July 19, 2018, it was announced that Brownell and Clemson had agreed to a six-year, $15 million contract extension. This extension will keep Brownell at the school through 2024.
On January 11, 2020 Brownell coached the Tigers to the program's first road victory at UNC after 59 attempts. The series between the two schools began in 1926.
Head coaching record
References
External links
Clemson Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brownell, Brad
1968 births
Living people
American men's basketball coaches
American men's basketball players
Basketball coaches from Indiana
Basketball players from Indiana
Clemson Tigers men's basketball coaches
College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
DePauw Tigers men's basketball players
Evansville Purple Aces men's basketball coaches
Indianapolis Greyhounds men's basketball coaches
Sportspeople from Evansville, Indiana
UNC Wilmington Seahawks men's basketball coaches
University of Indianapolis alumni
Wright State Raiders men's basketball coaches