How Isaac Brown is adjusting to new life as head coach of Wichita State basketball
Life as a head coach has been an adjustment for Isaac Brown.
But in many ways, the jovial life-long assistant hasn’t changed since being designated interim head coach of the Wichita State men’s basketball team or through the Shockers’ successful 8-4 start to the season.
For instance, Brown has not moved into the head coach room in the WSU men’s basketball offices. In fact, he doesn’t operate out of an office at all.
“My office when we moved in was too cold. It was freezing in there, seriously,” Brown said. “So I moved to the conference room because the vent wasn’t blowing as hard.”
Brown likes it better in the conference room because it has a big TV, a white board and more space. It may seem like a silly aside, but to those who work with Brown, they point to little stuff like that as to why everyone loves the man they affectionately call “IB.”
“That’s just typical IB,” WSU assistant coach Tyson Waterman said. “That’s the one thing about him is just his personality. He’s a very happy-go-lucky kind of guy. He’s a very likable person. He’s a great communicator. The kids love him because he’s just a fun guy, but at the end of the day, he’s going to hold them accountable.”
When it comes to the actual coaching that comes with sliding over 12 inches on the bench to be the head man in charge, the elevated role has been a natural fit for Brown.
He may not have had any head coaching experience before this season, but he had been the right-hand man to several top-tier coaches. He’s seen some of the best in the business go about their work, witnessed first-hand what made them great and studied their work habits.
So what’s been the biggest challenge for Brown 12 games into his debut season as head coach?
“The biggest thing as a head coach is you’ve got to come up with decisions real quick during games,” Brown said. “When you’re an assistant coach, you can sit there and give suggestions here and there. Sometimes they’re right, sometimes they’re not. But as a head coach, you’ve got to make the final decision. When you slide one seat over, you’ve got to have those quick answers.”
Brown said when making those split-second calls, he trusts the scouting report put together by the coaching staff. By all accounts, Brown has made a lot of right calls this season.
Billy Kennedy, the coaching mentor to Brown who has more than two decades of head coaching experience, has marveled at the way Brown has handled the job in such adverse circumstances.
“He’s done a good job in managing the team,” Kennedy said. “He’s been confident and he’s really good with the players and he’s kept them even-keeled through this season so far.”
Before facing the Shockers, Houston coach Kelvin Sampson remarked that he could tell from the film that WSU’s players were fully behind Brown. WSU’s leading scorer Tyson Etienne explained why Brown has elicited full buy-in from the players this season.
“He’s done a great job of staying true to us and believing in us, even when stuff might not be going the best way in the game,” Etienne said. “He never gives up on us and continues to give us positive reinforcement. I think that’s something that is huge, especially with so many new guys and young guys. We need to know our coach is rocking with us and all of our coaches have done a great job with that.”
Two months into the job and Brown said he feels comfortable with the new responsibilities of being a head coach.
He has always been a talkative assistant coach, so the transition to standing front and center and delivering locker-room speeches has been an easy one. His diligence on scouting reports as an assistant has fared well as a head coach. He’d rather talk about his team than himself, but he’s growing more comfortable with media requests and being more in the spotlight.
“The biggest difference for me is those conversations with players in-game,” Brown said. “When you’re an assistant coach and you’re talking to them on the bench, the conversation always goes well because you’re not the one taking them out. That changes when you’re the head coach.”
Since Brown was promoted less than two weeks before the start of the season, he chose to keep the system of former coach Gregg Marshall in tact. It is the blueprint, after all, that led WSU to seven straight NCAA Tournaments and one that Brown firmly believes in.
That’s not to say Brown hasn’t made tweaks.
Watch closely and WSU still runs many of the same motion and ball-screen sets, but the Shockers have embraced more of a dribble-drive offense this season under Brown that gives playmakers like Alterique Gilbert, Etienne, Ricky Council and Craig Porter the freedom to break down defenses when they see fit.
The practice structure has remained mostly the same, but Brown says he has introduced new shooting drills to the team this season. Film studies also go a little bit differently this year.
“In the past, we would go in a timeline start to finish,” Brown said. “I like to do the film where we break down all of the bad stuff, then all of the good stuff. We show them good execution, bad execution, blown sets, guys not running in transition. The eye in the sky really helps those guys out and that’s how you get better from game to game.”
Brown said practices have been going well for the Shockers since their 72-52 loss at Memphis last Thursday. The players have been yearning to return to action after their following two games were postponed for COVID-19 issues in other programs, leaving a nine-day break before Saturday’s 3 p.m. game against Central Florida broadcast on ESPNU.
This season has been a trying one for every team in college basketball, but even more so for the Shockers with the adversity they faced entering the season. Through it all, WSU’s assistant coaches say Brown has done an “incredible” job at leading the team and keeping them focused on achieving their potential on the basketball court.
It remains to be seen if Brown is the right man for the long-term job as Shockers head coach, but there’s no doubt he was right man for the job this season.
“I’ve watch IB closely step into this role and I’ve seen something really special,” Waterman said. “He was pretty much due for an opportunity. I’ve seen him stay under control and handle the pressure extremely well. He’s done an unbelievable job, a job he doesn’t get enough credit for in my opinion.”
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