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Pete ThamelESPN
Wichita State is set to fire coach Isaac Brown, sources told ESPN. School officials are planning to meet with him today to formalize his departure.
Wichita State went 17-15 this season after losing to Tulane on Friday in the AAC Tournament. He went 48-34 over his three seasons there, reaching the NCAA tournament in his first season but not returning the past two years.
Wichita State has a new athletic director, Kevin Saal, who came to the school from basketball power Murray State in June of 2022. Saal took over for Darron Boatwright, who drew criticism for an inability to build the proper infrastructure for Wichita to compete in the NIL era.
Brown took over for former coach Gregg Marshall, who resigned in November of 2020 amid allegations of verbal and physical abuse. Marshall, who has virtually disappeared from the basketball world since his departure, re-set the on-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 leap from the Missouri Valley to the American Athletic Conference. Brown took over in a time of turmoil and struggled to live up to that caliber of success.
Brown, an assistant on Marshall’s staff before being promoted head coach, began his tenure with a promising opening season in 2021-21. Wichita earned an NCAA tournament bid, gaining an No. 11 seed before losing to Drake in the First Four of the NCAA tournament.
But the results were uneven after that, as Wichita lost to Alcorn State and San Francisco in non-conference play this year and finished 9-9 in league play. That 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 monetary support, which could make the job attractive to an established coach.