John Brannen is in his second season as an assistant coach at St. Bonaventure University. In addition to his coaching duties, Brannen also helps coordinate the staff's world-wide recruiting. His efforts help the Bonnies add six new student-athletes this season. Prior to joining head coach Anthony Solomon's staff at St. Bonaventure, the 30-year-old Brannen spent three seasons as an assistant coach at Eastern Kentucky University. The top assistant there in 2002-03, his responsibilities included coordination of recruiting, academic monitoring, strength and conditioning, scheduling and the program's summer camps. Brannen helped attract back-to-back recruiting classes ranked among the top 100 in the nation by Hoop Scoop. Among the student-athletes in those classes was the 2003 Ohio Valley Conference Freshman of the Year, Matt Witt. Prior to his tenure at Eastern Kentucky, Brannen spent the 1999-00 season at the University of Charleston as an assistant under Jayson Gee, who is now the Bonnies' top assistant. There, Brannen helped the Golden Eagles finish 28-4 and advance to the second round of the NCAA Division II Tournament. Brannen is a 1996 graduate of Marshall, where he earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and graduated with honors. He was a Rhodes Scholarship finalist in the state of West Virginia and received postgraduate scholarships from both the NCAA and the Southern Conference. The 6-8 forward led the Southern Conference in scoring his senior season of 1996-97 at 20.9 points per game and was the runner-up for the conference's player of the year award. He also was named the Southern Conference tournament Most Valuable Player. Brannen averaged 14.4 points per game as a junior when he played for current Florida coach Billy Donovan. Brannen completed his two seasons at Marshall with 1,008 points. Brannen began his college career at Morehead State before transferring to Marshall. Following his graduation from Marshall, Brannen played two seasons of professional basketball in Belgium's First Division, where he was named an all-star and also served as a player-coach. A native of Covington, Ky., Brannen is engaged to Lisa Elswick, and the couple will be married in August 2005.