Butler Community College men’s basketball coach Brian Barone takes indefinite leave of absence
Butler Community College announced Thursday that first-year men’s basketball coach Brian Barone has taken an indefinite leave of absence.
Butler athletic director Todd Carter would not give any further information about Barone’s decision, and Barone did not return calls or text messages seeking comment. Assistant Bryan Miller was named the interim coach.
“Due to the personal nature of this leave of absence and the fact that this is a personnel matter, details of the leave are not being made public,” the school said in a statement.
Barone was arrested for driving under the influence in Andover on Nov. 5, two days after a 92-68 loss at Northern Oklahoma-Tonkawa. According to Andover Municipal Court, he has a Dec. 7 court date in that case. Barone said before the season that he’d recently bought a house in Andover.
Butler is 2-3 this season and started the season 0-3 on the road before winning its last two games in El Dorado — Saturday against Redlands and Tuesday against the Sterling junior varsity. Barone was not with the team for either of those games.
Barone was hired in June to take over for Mike Bargen, Barone’s college teammate at Marquette who left to become an assistant coach at Bradley after winning the Jayhawk West title last season. Barone, who spent the last five seasons as an assistant at Wisconsin-Green Bay, is the son of former Texas A&M, Creighton and Memphis Grizzlies coach Tony Barone.
Tony Adame: 316-268-6284, @t_adame
This story was originally published November 12, 2015 at 2:29 PM with the headline "Butler Community College men’s basketball coach Brian Barone takes indefinite leave of absence."