‘A man of character’: The legacy Isaac Brown leaves behind at Wichita State basketball
When the news broke Saturday afternoon that Wichita State had parted ways with men’s basketball coach Isaac Brown, the reactions among fans were swift and abundant.
Immediate speculation began about who the next head coach could be and where the university came up with the money for a $4 million buyout.
It’s easy for the human element of Saturday’s news to be lost in such a significant, program-altering decision, but the firing of Brown had a much more far-reaching impact than just one coach losing his job.
Saturday was an emotional day at Koch Arena, as a high school state championship game was being played down on the court and the fate of Brown was being delivered to him by Kevin Saal in a 4 p.m. meeting in the athletic director’s second-floor office in the concourse of Koch Arena.
It was just two years ago in the very same building where Brown cut down the nets and celebrated the program’s first American Athletic Conference championship. It seemed like an impossible achievement: Brown had taken over the program in the worst of circumstances, mere weeks before the start of the 2020-21 season after a legendary coach had resigned amid abuse allegations and months into a world-altering pandemic.
Brown knew criticism was growing after WSU missed postseason play for the second straight year, but believed he had demonstrated the program was headed in the right direction by the team’s improved play over the final two months of the season. He was optimistic that the Shockers could contend for a championship again with an influx of cash to WSU’s NIL collective, backing he didn’t have last offseason, and with the departures of Houston, Cincinnati and UCF this summer.
But in the end, missing postseason for a second straight year, declining attendance and the program’s first home losing record since 1996 were too much for Brown, who has called WSU home since 2014, to overcome in what was a complex and nuanced decision by Saal in his first year on the job.
Meanwhile, a handful of players who returned to Wichita on the team bus were gathered in the team’s locker room. Because this week is spring break at WSU, many of the players had already returned to their respective homes and had to call in on Zoom for the meeting.
According to players, they learned of their coach being fired from Twitter before Saal or Brown could deliver the news in person.
Already disappointed by the loss the previous evening, many of the players were understandably “hurt” to hear the head coach who recruited them and who spent hours upon hours together with them for the past 10 months had been fired. According to the players, Brown called at least a handful of them after the meeting to thank them for their commitment to him.
Rachel Higginbotham, the mother of Craig Porter, said Brown called her on Sunday to thank her personally for allowing her son to play for the Shockers and to let her know he would do anything he possibly could to help Porter reach the highest possible level of professional basketball.
“Now that’s what I want in a coach and for that, I am always thankful for coach Brown,” Higginbotham said. “He taught Craig more than just basketball. He taught him leadership skills and how to be more vocal, which I think are valuable life skills. He was always there for him and I thank coach Brown for the commitment he put into my son. Each year Craig got better and better as a basketball player and it was because of the confidence that coach Brown gave him.”
Anecdotes like that are in endless supply from Brown’s tenure with the Shockers. Every player and coach who he has come into contact with raves about his character. Even the players who left in the transfer portal and disagreed with his coaching decisions, never questioned where his heart was.
Regardless of how fans felt about his teams’ performance on the court, Brown has carved out his own portion in Shocker basketball history. Not only was he the program’s first Black coach, inspiring other Black coaches at all levels in the state of Kansas, but he guided the program through the most extraordinary circumstances (a pandemic, a controversy, a changing landscape with transfer portal and NIL money) and came out with an AAC title, three straight winning seasons and, perhaps most importantly, he did it all with integrity.
Saal specifically thanked Brown for this trait in his letter addressed to Shocker Nation he published Saturday evening.
“I want to thank coach Brown for his contributions in support of Wichita State men’s basketball,” Saal wrote. “His love for our student-athletes and our program is unquestioned and we are grateful for his investment in the lives of our student-athletes, serving as both assistant and head coach over the last nine seasons. Coach Brown is a man of character and integrity and we appreciate everything he’s done for our men’s basketball program, especially during a significant period of transition. We wish coach Brown and his family all the best in their next endeavors.”
Like with any coaching change, players are likely to enter the transfer portal on Monday morning when it opens back up. It’s also unclear if Brown’s lone 2023 recruit, high school senior Makhi Myles, will remain with the Shockers. Some current WSU players told The Eagle they plan to take their time and assess their options before making a decision.
Meanwhile, Brown, who turns 54 in May, had enough success at WSU to likely earn another shot as a head coach or assistant coach, whichever he prefers. He will also receive roughly a $108,000 direct deposit from WSU every month until April 2026 if he chooses otherwise.
A group that does not have such luxury is the remaining members of the coaching staff and support staff. They are still technically employed by WSU because their contracts are renewed on an annual basis and will remain with the program through the transition to when a new head coach is hired.
But it’s common practice in the college basketball world for a head coach to bring or hire their own people. So while Brown’s name is the one that flashes on the bottom line of ESPN and he is set to receive a $4 million buyout, those below him were effectively fired along with him — and without the walk-away money for the future, also a standard practice. The ripple effects were felt throughout the entire program on Saturday.
Assistants Butch Pierre, 60, and Billy Kennedy, 59, are veterans with contacts throughout the country and should have no problem finding another job, if desired.
But WSU was the longest Division 1 job that fellow assistant Tyson Waterman has known. He was plucked by Gregg Marshall, whom he played for at Winthrop, from the prep ranks and helped deliver Dexter Dennis, Tyson Etienne and Ricky Council to WSU over the years. But Waterman, who is much younger than his peers on staff and is raising a family with a high school-aged daughter, now has to deal with the uncertainty of what comes next. He hopes to land a low-major head coaching job or try to secure another assistant job as an ace recruiter on someone else’s staff, but nothing is guaranteed in the coaching world.
The person that former players immediately thought of when hearing the news was director of operations Dominic Okon, the longest-tenured person on staff who had served in the role since 2007. He was there from the ground floor to watch Marshall steadily build the Shockers into a national powerhouse and has been a constant in the program for 16 years, managing the team’s budget, travel arrangements and scheduling, but also being someone the players could talk to and the coaches could trust.
A native of Nigeria, Okon and his wife, Monica, have raised two sons, Jaden and Jordan, who have played basketball at Wichita Heights, during his time with the program. It was an emotional farewell for him after nearly two decades of memories in the same program, as Okon learned of Brown’s firing in the meeting right before he watched his youngest son play for a state championship at Koch Arena.
There are now uncertain futures for three Wichita natives who have each carved out an invaluable role in the program in their years of service.
Nick Jones, a 2010 Goddard graduate, has been with WSU for a total of eight years, starting out as a graduate manager, progressing to video coordinator and then being promoted to director of player development for the last four years. He has impressed head coaches he has worked under with his attention to detail, his ability to break down film and his savvy with analytics and how to apply them to coaching.
Jeff Chapman, a 2011 Maize South graduate, has been with WSU for a total of nine years, starting out as a manager, then returning as a volunteer and being hired full-time as the team’s video coordinator for the last four seasons. Not only was he in charge of filming practices and games, then splicing clips up for the coaching staff, but he was also heavily involved in practices helping Brown coordinate and execute drills. He also helped in the scouting process and earned the trust and respect from the coaches on staff with his ability to analyze the game.
Both Jones and Chapman have aspirations of becoming coaches at the Division 1 level and will likely have to pursue that dream somewhere other than their hometown team, where they have spent almost a decade of their professional careers. The quality of their work should make them worthy candidates for any staff, but so much about being hired at this level is about connections and facing unemployment is a scary proposition for any young-and-upcoming coach still trying to make their mark.
Ryan Hillard, another Wichita native and 2007 graduate of Goddard, might not be a name fans are familiar with, but he is hailed as one of the best in the business at what he does and considered vital to the operation of Shocker basketball.
Marshall was so impressed by Hillard in his four years as a manager with the team from 2008-12, he immediately hired him and created a role (special assistant) specifically for him. For the past decade, Hillard has been the unsung hero with his behind-the-scenes work in the basketball office, organizing all of the coaches’ schedules and overseeing the internal operations of the program. It’s possible that he could remain in the position under the new coach, but it’s not a given.
All will remain in Wichita for the time being, until a new head coach is hired, then determine their next course of action.
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 6:44 AM.
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