University of Cincinnati men's basketball coach John Brannen's attorney, Tom Mars, on Monday called the ongoing saga with UC Director of Athletics John Cunningham and the school's athletics department an "avoidable embarrassment to UC Athletics."
"I’m no stranger to disputes between universities and head coaches and complaints of mistreatment by college athletes," Mars told The Enquirer. "In fact, I’ve probably helped more college athletes transfer for those reasons than any lawyer in the country. But I’ve never encountered anything like what’s been going on inside the UC Athletics Department."
Mars said Cunningham's decision Saturday to place Brannen on paid administrative leave indefinitely while Cunningham enlists a team of "independent fact-finders" to help conduct a university review of unspecified allegations made against Brannen and the Bearcats program both "baseless and premature."
More:University of Cincinnati suspends men's basketball coach John Brannen
"The UC lawyers still haven’t spoken with Coach Brannen, and neither has John Cunningham," Mars said. "What’s more, the gratuitous issuance of a press release announcing Coach Brannen’s suspension with pay was totally uncalled for and only made matters worse for everyone who’s part of the Bearcats’ basketball program.
"I’m hopeful the senior administration of UC will make a course correction before this avoidable embarrassment to UC Athletics ends in a train wreck."
Cunningham declined to comment.
Cunningham, who was hired as Cincinnati's athletic director in December 2019, eight months after Brannen was hired at UC, announced Saturday that Brannen has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the completion of a university review into the program.
Cunningham has not given a timeline for UC's review. Cunningham announced the commencement of the review on March 26.
More:University of Cincinnati will 'review' allegations made against men's basketball program
"The University has always put the welfare of its student-athletes first," Cunningham said last month. "We feel this is an essential step to ensure that all of our athletic programs meet the highest standards."
Seven players have left the UC program in the past four months. Rapolas Ivanauskas opted out in December and later joined a professional club in Lithuania, while six of his former teammates entered the transfer portal in a three-day span following the Bearcats' loss to Houston on March 14 in the American Athletic Conference tournament championship game.
One of those players, freshman guard Gabe Madsen, has since committed to the University of Utah.
The most notable of the group is freshman forward Tari Eason. The 6-foot-8, 215-pound four-star recruit out of Seattle averaged 7.3 points, 5.9 rebounds and 1.2 steals this season en route to earning a spot on the AAC All-Freshman team. Eason’s 1.3 blocks per game ranked fourth in the American.
Mike Saunders Jr., the first player to whom Brannen offered a scholarship when the 47-year-old coach was hired at Cincinnati, also entered the portal. The 6-foot freshman guard averaged 3.5 points and 1.4 assists this season. Saunders, an Indianapolis native, started 10 of UC’s last 12 games after beginning the season as a reserve.
Saunders’ role increased when junior starting point guard David DeJulius opted out on Feb. 25. DeJulius missed four games before returning for the AAC tournament.
DeJulius, who transferred to Cincinnati last offseason after two years at Michigan, spoke out in support of Brannen in a recent interview with The Athletic. That came after unnamed players offered The Athletic their unattributed takes on the second-year Cincinnati coach.
The players suggested Brannen was apathetic to the challenges they faced due to the COVID-19 pandemic, that he dispensed playing time unwisely and that they had lost all trust in him.
UC sophomore guard Jeremiah Davenport, a Cincinnati native and former Moeller High School standout, tweeted after Gabe's twin brother, Mason Madsen, announced he was entering the portal, telling Bearcats fans to “Keep the faith ... we gone be alright! REGARDLESS!”
Davenport was the only Bearcats player to earn a spot on the AAC All-Tournament team, averaging a team-high 12.7 points, six rebounds and 1.7 steals over the three-game stretch.
Brannen, who has an approximately $5 million buyout in his contract, has landed one commitment from the 2021 class in Bryson Spell, a 6-foot-9 forward out of Virginia.
Brannen, who is 32-21 in two seasons at Cincinnati, led the Bearcats to a 20-10 record last season, a tie for the AAC regular-season crown and the No. 1 seed in the AAC tournament. The postseason tournaments were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cincinnati started 3-7 this season before COVID-19 issues forced the team away from the court for 25 days. The Bearcats rallied to a 9-4 finish.
Cincinnati hired Brannen to replace Mick Cronin, who took over the UCLA men's basketball program in April 2019 after 13 seasons at UC. Cronin led UCLA to the Final Four this season.
More:Thumbs up: Cincinnati native Mick Cronin in spotlight of Final Four
Brannen spent the previous four seasons at Northern Kentucky University. He went 81-51 and won two regular-season conference titles, two conference tournament titles and advanced to the NCAA tournament twice during that span.
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