Mike Martin named Brown head coach

After six years as an assistant coach for Penn basketball, Mike Martin is officially leaving the Red and Blue. In a press conference Friday afternoon in Providence, R.I., Martin will be named the head coach of the Brown basketball.

A four-year starter for the Bears, Martin graduated from Brown in 2004. After playing a year professionally for Dart Killester in Ireland, Martin returned to Brown and served as an assistant under then-coach Glenn Miller for the 2005-06 season. When Miller was appointed Penn’s head coach the following year, Martin followed him to the Palestra.

Martin remained at Penn even when Miller was fired seven games into the 2009-10 season. While serving under both Miller and current head man Jerome Allen, Brown was instrumental in the recruiting process that brought players such as Zack Rosen, Henry Brooks and Miles Cartwright to the Quakers. Allen released a statement on Mike Martin’s appointment via Penn Athetics:

I am extremely happy for Mike and his family; his hiring is well-deserved. Mike has done the University of Pennsylvania a great service for the last six years, and it is only right that he get the opportunity to run his own program.
As I have learned the past three years, it is a special opportunity to oversee a program that you once played in, and I know that Mike will embrace that opportunity at Brown. With the exception of two times each season, I wish Mike nothing but the best of success.

Martin has been the center of rumors

Tomorrow’s press conference will be streamed live on brownbears.com at 1 p.m.