Tom Brennan (born May 2, 1949) is a

radio Radio is the technology of communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 3 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmitter connec ...

and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

sportscaster and former men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

head coach A head coach, senior coach, or manager is a professional responsible for training and developing athletes within a sports team. This role often has a higher public profile and salary than other coaching positions. In some sports, such as associat ...

at the

University of Vermont The University of Vermont and State Agricultural College, commonly referred to as the University of Vermont (UVM), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Burlington, Vermont, United States. Foun ...

from 1986 to 2005.

Coaching career

Raised in

Phillipsburg, New Jersey Phillipsburg is a town located along the Delaware River that is the most populous municipality in Warren County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It is part of the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan statistical area. As of the 202 ...

, Brennan graduated as the all-time leading scorer at Phillipsburg Catholic High School. Brennan graduated from the

University of Georgia The University of Georgia (UGA or Georgia) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Athens, Georgia, United States. Chartered in 1785, it is the oldest public university in th ...

in 1971, where, as a senior, he received the men's basketball team leadership award. He began his coaching after graduating in the fall of 1971 as a graduate assistant at Georgia under Ken Rosemond. Sandwiched around a year as head basketball and baseball coach at Division III

Fairleigh Dickinson University Fairleigh Dickinson University () is a private university with its main campuses in New Jersey, located in Madison / Florham Park and in Teaneck / Hackensack. Founded in 1942, Fairleigh Dickinson University offers more than 100 degree prog ...

Madison, New Jersey Madison is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Morris County, New Jersey, Morris County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the borough's population was 16,937, an increase of 1,092 (+6.9%) from the 2010 United ...

, Brennan was an assistant under college basketball coaches

Rollie Massimino Roland Vincent Massimino (November 13, 1934 – August 30, 2017) was an American basketball coach. He served as the head men's basketball coach at Stony Brook University (1969–1971), Villanova University (1973–1992), the University of Nevada, ...

at Villanova,

Bill Raftery William Joseph Raftery (born April 19, 1943) is an American basketball analyst and former college basketball coach. Early life and playing years Born William Joseph Raftery in Orange, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Kearny, Raftery grew up i ...

Seton Hall Seton Hall University (SHU) is a Private university, private Catholic Church, Catholic research university in South Orange, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1856 by then-Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley and named after his aunt, Saint Elizab ...

and Bruce Parkhill at William & Mary. In 1982, he was named head coach at

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

where he crafted a four-year record of 46–58, including back-to-back seasons of 14–12 and 13–13. At Yale, he coached players such as Earl "Butch" Graves and NBA veteran

Chris Dudley Christen Guilford Dudley (born February 22, 1965) is an American former professional basketball player and politician. He played 886 games across 16 seasons in the NBA for the Cleveland Cavaliers, New Jersey Nets, Portland Trail Blazers, New Yo ...

. In 19 years at Vermont, Brennan led the Catamounts to four 20+ win seasons, three America East championships and UVM's first three NCAA Tournament appearances, including the school's first NCAA Tournament win over Big East champion Syracuse in 2005. Brennan is one of two coaches in America East history to lead his team to three consecutive conference titles. Brennan's last four Vermont teams brought unprecedented positive national publicity to the men's basketball program and to the school. During his last season, Vermont became the first and only America East team to sell out every one of its home games at Patrick Gymnasium. During the second half of the 2004–05 season the Catamounts were the subject of five parts of ESPN's critically acclaimed nationally televised series, 'The Season.' UVM's upset also was nominated for an ESPY award in 2005. Standouts that Brennan coached at Vermont include Eddie Benton, the 1996 winner of the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award given to the nation's top senior less than 6-feet tall, Matt Johnson, Kevin Roberson, Trevor Gaines, T.J. Sorrentine and

Taylor Coppenrath Taylor Burton Coppenrath (born November 8, 1981) is an American former professional basketball player. Early life Coppenrath went to high school at St. Johnsbury Academy where he did not play for the varsity basketball team until his junior yea ...

, a finalist in 2005 for both the John Wooden and James Naismith National Player of the Year Awards, the first and only America East player to be on a final ballot for National Player of the Year.

Broadcast career

During his coaching career, Brennan co-hosted a morning radio show in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

called "Corm and the Coach," with radio personality Steve Cormier, which began on WIZN-FM 106.7 FM in 1992. In 1998, the pair moved to WCVP-FM 101.3 and WCVR-FM 102.1 until July 2008, when Brennan decided to retire from his position as morning radio personality. In November 2009, Brennan and Cormier teamed up again to bring "Corm and the Coach" briefly back on the air on 107.1 WNMR before moving to television on WCAXtra TV and on the internet on NSN.net until 2011. Brennan delivers ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

''-style sports reports and his thoughts on basketball, politics, entertainment, local news and psychology. The Coach's repertoire also included live, pre-dawn wake-up calls to his players and coaching colleagues. In the 2003 and 2004 off-seasons, he also was a co-host on several

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

national radio shows. After his retirement from coaching in 2005, Brennan joined

working as a college basketball studio analyst as well as doing color commentary across the ESPN family of networks. He worked at ESPN until 2009. In December 2010, Brennan joined

Sirius XM Radio Sirius XM Holdings Inc. is an American broadcasting corporation headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, that provides satellite radio and online radio services operating in the United States. The company was formed by the 2008 merger ...

as a co-host of College Basketball Today that airs during the college hoops season. Brennan also does radio commentary for college basketball on

Westwood One Westwood One, Inc. is an American radio network owned by Cumulus Media. The company syndicates talk, music, and sports programming. The company takes its name from an earlier network also named Westwood One, a company founded in 1976. The co ...

, now known as Dial Global Sports, as well as television work for

NBC Sports Network NBCSN (also known as NBC Sports Network) was an American sports television channel owned by the NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It originally launched on July 1, 1995, as the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), w ...

, appearing as a college basketball analyst on NBC SportsTalk.

Accomplishments

* Hired by Sirius XM and Westwood One (Dial Global Sports) Radio in 2009 as a national college basketball radio show host and game analyst * Hired as a National College Basketball Analyst by ESPN in 2005 * Led team to a defeat of BIG EAST champion

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

in the first round of the 2005 NCAA tournamentVermont Catamounts vs. Syracuse Orange – Recap – March 18, 2005 – ESPN
* 2005

America East The America East Conference (AmEast) is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1979, t ...

ChampionsUVM Men's Basketball Record Book
. * 2004 America East Champions * 2003 America East Champions * 2002 America East Regular Season Champions * 1992 America East Coach of the Year * 1998 America East Coach of the Year * 2002 America East Coach of the Year * 1992 NABC District I (New England) Coach of the Year * 2002 NABC District I (New England) Coach of the Year * 2005 New Jersey Sportswriters National Coach of the Year * All-Time Leader in Games Coached At Vermont * All-Time Leader in Victories At Vermont

Family

Brennan and his wife, Lynn reside on

Lake Champlain Lake Champlain ( ; , ) is a natural freshwater lake in North America. It mostly lies between the U.S. states of New York (state), New York and Vermont, but also extends north into the Canadian province of Quebec. The cities of Burlington, Ve ...

Colchester, Vermont Colchester is a town in Chittenden County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of Colchester was 17,524. It is the third-most populous municipality and most populous town in the state of Vermont. Colchester borders B ...

. He has two children: Kelly, who graduated from UVM in 1993 and Brian who was a standout guard at Indiana (Pa.) University, which reached the NCAA D-II Elite Eight in 2000. He has four grandchildren; Caleb, Brennan, Ryder, and Jordan.

Head coaching record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brennan, Tom 1949 births Living people American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Vermont Basketball coaches from New Jersey Basketball players from Warren County, New Jersey College men's basketball head coaches in the United States Georgia Bulldogs basketball coaches Georgia Bulldogs basketball players People from Colchester, Vermont Sportspeople from Chittenden County, Vermont Sportspeople from Phillipsburg, New Jersey Seton Hall Pirates men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Burlington, Vermont Vermont Catamounts men's basketball coaches Villanova Wildcats men's basketball coaches William & Mary Tribe men's basketball coaches Yale Bulldogs men's basketball coaches 20th-century American sportsmen