In March of 2008, John Brady was named Head Coach of the Arkansas State University Men's Basketball Team. Brady coaches with heart, passion and a knowledge of the game that makes him one of the best at in-game decisions.

After eleven seasons as Head Coach of Louisiana State University, Brady's success with the team was evident by a 2006 NCAA Final Four appearance, only the fourth men's Final Four in LSU history. In 2005, the LSU Tigers won the Southeastern Conference Western Division with a 12-4 record, won 20 games (including 14 of the last 19) and posted the first undefeated record at home in the SEC (8-0) since 1981.

Brady came to LSU after six highly successful seasons at Samford University in Birmingham, Ala., one of several programs he has helped build to new heights in his career. The McComb, Miss., native played his college ball at Belhaven College in Jackson, Miss., from 1972-76, twice earning All-Southern States Conference honors as a guard. Brady was a three-year starter at Belhaven and scored over 1,000 points during his career. He would later be inducted into his alma mater's Hall of Fame.

He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Mississippi State while earning his Masters in education. From there, Brady moved to the prep ranks, making the first stop of his career in Louisiana. This stop was as the head coach at Crowley High School from 1977-82.

There he compiled a record of 129-49 (.752). During the 1980-81 campaign, Brady made a visit to the Maravich Center as a head coach, as Crowley advanced all the way to the Class AAA finals in the Top 28 Tournament. Brady was named the Louisiana Sports Writers Association Coach of the Year for the classification that season. In all, three of his Crowley teams advanced to at least the quarterfinals in the playoffs.

He returned to college coaching at Mississippi State for the 1982-83 season, serving four years under Bob Boyd and four years under Richard Williams. Under Williams, he served as chief recruiter and certainly honed his ability to find top-notch talent bringing in such stars as Cameron Burns, Greg Carter and Tony Watts. Those and others led the Bulldogs from last place in the SEC to the co-championship with LSU in 1991, one year after Brady's departure.

Following his tenure in Starkville, Brady returned to Louisiana for the second time, this time to serve on the staff of Tim Floyd at the University of New Orleans. Again, Brady was part of an NCAA Tournament team with the Privateers.

It came time for John Brady to take the next big step to a Division I college head coaching position. What he did at Samford was bring a new level of excitement to the fans and to the team that is still talked about to this day.

In his six-year tenure (1992-97), he turned the Trans-American Athletic Conference team into a consistent winner, posting a record of 89-77. He posted double figure victory totals each of his six seasons, something the school did not enjoy in any of the five years prior to Brady's arrival.

In his final three seasons at Samford, he was 16-11 (1995, 1996) and 19-9 (1997) giving the school three-straight winning seasons for the first time since 1982-84. He was the first Samford coach to have four winning seasons in his career and he left as the school's winningest coach.

The Bulldogs won two TAAC Western Division Championships, sharing the crown in 1996 and winning it outright in 1997, the first TAAC basketball championship of any kind at that time, for Samford. The team went 11-5 in each of his last three seasons in the conference.

John Brady is married to the former Misty Champagne and has two daughters, Brittany and Brooke.

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