Ben Braun

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Ben Braun has been the head coach of the California Golden Bears college basketball program since 1996. He and his wife, Jessica, live in Berkeley, California.

[edit] Coaching History

After graduating from Wisconsin in 1975, Braun begain his career as an assistant coach at Park High School in Racine, Wisconsin. After two years of coaching high school basketball, he accepted the head coaching job at Sienna Heights College. Braun coached Sienna Heights for eight years taking the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) school to a 148-103 record and five postseason tournaments.

Prior to the 1985-86 season, Braun took on the position of associate head coach at Eastern Michigan. Midway through the year, on Jan. 15, 1986, he was elevated to interim head coach. Within two years his Eagles were in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. During his 11 years at Eastern Michigan, he guided the Eagles to four postseason berths, including three NCAA appearances. Braun accumulated a record of 185-132 and was named Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year three times.

Braun replaced Todd Bozeman as the head coach at Cal prior to the 1996-1997 season. Expectations were low as Golden Bears were predicted to finish in the bottom half of the conference. However, the team finished tied for second in the conference and reached the NCAA Sweet 16. The team finished the season 23-9 and gave Braun a school record for most wins by a Bear coach in his first year with the program. Ben Braun went on to win the Pac-10 Coach of the Year - the first Cal coach to ever receive the award.

In the 1998-1999 season, Braun's club defeated North Carolina, UCLA, and Arizona during the course of the year to become the first team ever at Cal to beat three Top 10 schools in the same season. Then after entering the NIT, the Bears won five consecutive postseason games to capture the NIT title - Cal's first postseason tournament championship since the Bears won the 1959 NCAA title. Cal finished the 1998-99 campaign with a 22-11 record.

In 2000-01, the Bears returned to the NCAA Tournament, finishing with a 20-11 record, and Lampley - Braun's first recruit at Cal - became the school's all-time leading scorer late in his senior campaign, finishing with 1,776 points.

In 2001-02, the Bears again went 23-9 and tied for second in the Pac-10 stadings. Cal earned a No. 6 seed in the NCAA playoffs, where the Bears toppled Penn before falling to Pittsburgh in the second round.

In 2002-03, Cal again reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament behind All-Pac-10 forwards Joe Shipp and Amit Tamir. Shipp ended his career with the No. 3 position on the Bears' all-time scoring list, while teammate Brian Wethers finished in the No. 15 position.

In 2005-06, Cal defeated USC and Oregon to reach the Pac-10 Tournament final for the first time ever. The Bears then earned a No. 7 regional seed in the NCAA Tournament and finished the year with a 20-11 mark. On Nov. 21, 2005, Cal defeated Long Beach State, 88-69, to give Braun his 500th career win.

During his tenure at Cal, Braun has directed the Bears to more postseason appearances and more postseason victories than any coach in school history. He enters the 2006-07 campaign with a 186-121 record with the Bears and a 29-year career mark of 519-356. He ranks second to Nibs Price (1925-54, 449-294) in both tenure and wins at Cal, while his Cal winning percentage (.606) is the best at the school since Hall of Famer Pete Newell guided the Bears to a 119-44 mark from 1955-60.

[edit] Coaching Record at Cal

Season	Overall Record	Pac-10 Record	Standing in Pac-10	Postseason
1996-97	23-9	12-6	Tied for 2nd	NCAA Sweet 16
1997-98	12-15	8-10	Tied for 5th
1998-99	22-11	8-10	Tied for 5th	NIT Champions
1999-2000	18-15	7-11	7th	NIT Quarterfinals
2000-01	20-11	11-7	Tied for 4th	NCAA 1st Round
2001-02	23-9	12-6	Tied for 2nd	NCAA 2nd Round
2002-03	22-9	13-5	3rd	NCAA 2nd Round
2003-04	13-15	9-9	Tied for 4th
2004-05	13-16	6-12	Tied for 8th
2005-06	20-11	12-6	3rd	NCAA 1st Round
Total	186-121	98-82

Preceded by: Todd Bozeman

California Head Men's Basketball Coach 1996 –

Succeeded by: Current