Wichita State coach Isaac Brown has been fired, sources told ESPN. School officials plan to meet with him today to formalize his departure.
Wichita State went 17-15 on the season after Friday’s loss to Tulane in the AAC Tournament. Brown went 48-34 in his three seasons there, reaching the NCAA Tournament in his first season but not returning the last two years.
Wichita State has a new athletic director, Kevin Sall, who arrived at the school in June 2022 from basketball power Murray State. Sal took over from Darron Boatwright, who criticized Wichita for not building the proper infrastructure to compete. NIL (Name, Image, Simile) was there.
Brown takes over for former coach Gregg Marshall, who resigned in November 2020 amid allegations of verbal and physical abuse. Marshall, who has virtually disappeared from the basketball world since his departure, reset court expectations at Wichita State before his departure.
Wichita State reached the 2013 Final Four and had an undefeated regular season in 2013–14. Marshall also oversaw the program’s jump from the Missouri Valley to the American Athletic Conference. Brown took over during a period of turmoil and struggled to live up to that caliber of success.
Brown, an assistant on Marshall’s staff before being promoted to head coach, began his tenure with a promising inaugural season in 2021-21. Wichita earned an NCAA Tournament bid, earning a No. 11 seed before losing to Drake in the first four of the NCAA Tournament.
But the results after that were uneven, as Wichita lost to Alcorn State and San Francisco in non-conference play this season and finished 9-9 in league play. It came on the heels of Wichita finishing 6-9 in conference play in 2021-22.
Wichita has established a reputation as a school with unusually strong fan and financial support, which could make the job attractive to an established coach.