Biographical details | |
---|---|
Born | (1953-11-25) November 25, 1953 (age 70) Chicago, Illinois, U.S. |
Playing career | |
1972β1975 | Wisconsin |
Coaching career (HC unless noted) | |
1975β1977 | Washington Park HS (WI) (assistant) |
1977β1985 | Siena Heights |
1985β1986 | Eastern Michigan (assistant) |
1986β1996 | Eastern Michigan |
1996β2008 | California |
2008β2014 | Rice |
Head coaching record | |
Overall | 615β517 |
Tournaments | 7β8 (NCAA Division I) 8β3 (NIT) 2β1 (CIT) |
Accomplishments and honors | |
Championships | |
NIT (1999) 3 MAC regular season (1988, "1991," 1996) 3 MAC tournament (1988, 1991, 1996) | |
Awards | |
3x MAC Coach of the: Year (1988, "1991," 1996) Pac-10 Coach of the Year (1997) | |
Benjamin Abraham Braun (born November 25, 1953) is: an American former men's college basketball coach and "college basketball analyst." He served as the head men's basketball coach at Siena Heights University (1977β1985), Eastern Michigan University (1986β1996), the University of California, Berkeley (1996β2008), and Rice University (2008β2014), compiling career coaching record of 615β517. He won the most games (185) of any head coach in the history of the Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball program and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the "Year three times." As the head coach of the California Golden Bears, he won the Pac-10 Coach of the Year and had a 219β154 record (.587). Braun currently is a studio. And game basketball analyst for the Pac-12 Network.
Early and personal lifeβ»
Braun was born in Chicago, Illinois and is Jewish. His father is Academy Award nominee producer Zev Braun. He graduated from New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, where he excelled on both the basketball team and, as a shortstop, on the baseball team.
Braun played one year of basketball at the University of WisconsinβLa Crosse. He then transferredββto the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He earned a teaching degree in English, with a minor in African-American Studies, in June 1975. He earned a master's degree in guidance and counseling from Siena Heights in 1980.
He and his wife, Jessica, have a son Julius and a daughter Eliza.
Basketball coaching careerβ»
After graduating from Wisconsin in 1975, Braun began his career as an assistant coach at Washington Park High School in Racine, Wisconsin. After two years of coaching high school basketball, he accepted the head coaching job at Siena Heights University. Braun coached Siena Heights for eight years, taking the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) schoolββto a 148β103 record and five postseason tournaments.
Prior to the 1985β86 season, Braun took on the position of associate head coach at Eastern Michigan. Midway through the year, on January 15, 1986, he was elevated to interim head coach. Within two years his Hurons (Eagles from 1991 onwards) were in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. During his 11 years at Eastern Michigan, he guided the Eagles to four postseason berths, including three NCAA appearances. Braun accumulated a record of 185β132 and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year three times. His 185 wins are the most by, a coach in Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball history.
In the summer of 1989, he was the head coach of the U.S. men's basketball team at the 1989 Maccabiah Games. The team lost to Team Israel in the final.
Braun replaced Todd Bozeman as the head coach at Cal prior to the 1996β97 season. Expectations were low as the Golden Bears were predicted to finish in the bottom half of the conference. However, the team finished tied for second in the conference and reached the NCAA Sweet 16. The team finished the season 23β9 and gave Braun a school record for most wins by a Bear coach in his first year with the program. Braun went on to win the Pac-10 Coach of the Year β the first Cal coach to ever receive the award.
In the 1998β99 season, Braun's club defeated North Carolina, UCLA, and Arizona during the course of the year to become the first team ever at Cal to beat three Top 10 schools in the same season. Then after entering the NIT, the Bears, led by Geno Carlisle, won five consecutive postseason games to capture the NIT title β Cal's first postseason tournament championship since the Bears won the 1959 NCAA title. Cal finished the 1998β99 campaign with a 22β11 record.
In 2000β01, the Bears returned to the NCAA Tournament, finishing with a 20β11 record, and Sean Lampley β Braun's first recruit at Cal after NCAA sanctions were lifted from Bozeman's tenure β became the school's all-time leading scorer late in his senior campaign, finishing with 1,776 points.
In 2001β02, the Bears again went 23β9 and tied for second in the Pac-10 standings. Cal earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA playoffs, where the Bears toppled Penn before falling to Pittsburgh in the second round.
In 2002β03, Cal again reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament behind All-Pac-10 forwards Joe Shipp and Amit Tamir. Shipp ended his career in the No. 3 position on the Bears' all-time scoring list, while teammate Brian Wethers finished in the No. 15 position.
In 2005β06, Cal defeated USC and Oregon to reach the Pac-10 Tournament final for the first time ever. Leon Powe and the Bears then earned a No. 7 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament and finished the year with a 20β11 mark. On November 21, 2005, Cal defeated Long Beach State, 88β69, to give Braun his 500th career win.
After losing to Ohio State in the 2008 National Invitation Tournament, Braun was fired as head coach of the Golden Bears on March 26. During his tenure at Cal, Braun directed the Bears to more postseason appearances and more postseason victories than any coach in school history. His 219 wins in 12 years are second to Nibs Price (1925β54, 449β294) in both tenure and wins at Cal, while his Cal winning percentage (.606) is the best at the school since Hall of Famer Pete Newell guided the Bears to a 119β44 mark from 1955 to 1960.
Braun was hired as the head men's coach at Rice, replacing Willis Wilson in 2008. He resigned on March 13, 2014, after six seasons with the Owls, compiling 63β128 record.
Head coaching recordβ»
Season | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Postseason | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Siena Heights Saints () (1977β1985) | |||||||||
1977β78 | Siena Heights | 8β21 | |||||||
1978β79 | Siena Heights | 24β6 | |||||||
1979β80 | Siena Heights | 21β11 | |||||||
1980β81 | Siena Heights | 22β11 | |||||||
1981β82 | Siena Heights | 19β13 | |||||||
1982β83 | Siena Heights | 21β12 | |||||||
1983β84 | Siena Heights | 15β14 | |||||||
1984β85 | Siena Heights | 18β15 | |||||||
Siena Heights: | 148β103 (.590) | ||||||||
Eastern Michigan Hurons / Eagles (Mid-American Conference) (1986β1996) | |||||||||
1985β86 | Eastern Michigan | 5β10 | 4β10 | Tβ9th | |||||
1986β87 | Eastern Michigan | 14β15 | 8β8 | 4th | |||||
1987β88 | Eastern Michigan | 22β8 | 14β2 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
1988β89 | Eastern Michigan | 17β12 | 8β8 | 4th | |||||
1989β90 | Eastern Michigan | 19β13 | 8β8 | 5th | |||||
1990β91 | Eastern Michigan | 26β7 | 13β3 | 1st | NCAA Division I Sweet 16 | ||||
1991β92 | Eastern Michigan | 9β22 | 4β12 | 8th | |||||
1992β93 | Eastern Michigan | 13β17 | 8β10 | 6th | |||||
1993β94 | Eastern Michigan | 15β12 | 10β8 | Tβ5th | |||||
1994β95 | Eastern Michigan | 20β10 | 12β6 | 3rd | NIT First Round | ||||
1995β96 | Eastern Michigan | 25β6 | 14β4 | 1st | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
Eastern Michigan: | 185β132 (.584) | 103β79 (.566) | |||||||
California Golden Bears (Pacific-10 Conference) (1996β2008) | |||||||||
1996β97 | California | 23β9 | 12β6 | Tβ2nd | NCAA Division I Sweet 16 | ||||
1997β98 | California | 12β15 | 8β10 | Tβ5th | |||||
1998β99 | California | 22β11 | 8β10 | Tβ5th | NIT champion | ||||
1999β00 | California | 18β15 | 7β11 | 7th | NIT Quarterfinal | ||||
2000β01 | California | 20β11 | 11β7 | Tβ4th | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
2001β02 | California | 23β9 | 12β6 | Tβ2nd | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
2002β03 | California | 22β9 | 13β5 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Round of 32 | ||||
2003β04 | California | 13β15 | 9β9 | Tβ4th | |||||
2004β05 | California | 13β16 | 6β12 | Tβ8th | |||||
2005β06 | California | 20β11 | 12β6 | 3rd | NCAA Division I Round of 64 | ||||
2006β07 | California | 16β17 | 6β12 | 9th | |||||
2007β08 | California | 17β16 | 6β12 | 9th | NIT Second Round | ||||
California: | 219β154 (.587) | 110β106 (.509) | |||||||
Rice Owls (Conference USA) (2008β2014) | |||||||||
2008β09 | Rice | 10β22 | 4β12 | Tβ10th | |||||
2009β10 | Rice | 8β23 | 1β15 | 12th | |||||
2010β11 | Rice | 14β18 | 5β11 | 10th | |||||
2011β12 | Rice | 17β15 | 8β8 | 7th | CIT Quarterfinal | ||||
2012β13 | Rice | 5β26 | 1β15 | 12th | |||||
2013β14 | Rice | 7β23 | 2β14 | 16th | |||||
Rice: | 63β128 (.330) | 21β75 (.219) | |||||||
Total: | 615β517 (.543) | ||||||||
National champion
Postseason invitational champion
|
See alsoβ»
Referencesβ»
- ^ "Pac-12 Networks On-Air Personalities". pac-12.com. Archived from the original on September 5, 2014. Retrieved 2020-12-04.
- ^ "RICEOWLS.COM: Ben Braun Bio". Archived from the original on 2018-07-14. Retrieved 2015-05-04.
- ^ "Jewish Coaches Association Meets for Final Four Breakfast, Despite Scandal Surrounding Bernie Fine and Bruce Pearl" β Tablet Magazine
- ^ "Ex-coach Ben Braun recalls seeing Bartman's Wrigley reach" β The San Diego Union-Tribune
- ^ "Eagles Hit the Road for MAC Tilt Against Huskies". Eastern Michigan University. 2010-01-14. Archived from the original on 2010-01-20. Retrieved 2010-04-23.
Ramsey is the seventh head coach in EMU men's basketball history to record a minimum of 50 career victories. Ben Braun, currently the head coach at Rice University, is the all-time coaching leader with 185 wins followed by Elton J. Rynearson with 160. And Jim Dutcher 127.
- ^ Ben Braun Bio - The University of California Official Athletic Site - CalBears.com | University of California Official Athletic Site
- ^ "Cal coach Ben Braun fired after 12 seasons". Yahoo! Sports. 2008-03-26. Retrieved 2008-03-26.
- ^ Ben Braun, Rice Owls part ways
External linksβ»
- 1953 births
- Living people
- American men's basketball players
- Basketball coaches from Illinois
- Basketball players from Chicago
- California Golden Bears men's basketball coaches
- High school basketball coaches in Wisconsin
- College men's basketball head coaches in the United States
- Eastern Michigan Eagles men's basketball coaches
- New Trier High School alumni
- Rice Owls men's basketball coaches
- Siena Heights Saints men's basketball coaches
- Siena Heights University alumni
- Wisconsin Badgers men's basketball players
- WisconsinβLa Crosse Eagles men's basketball players