Season 4, Episode 64 - Ben Braun

It's not every episode we're joined by someone who's won over 600 college basketball games (or has their name on a Division I basketball court!), but that's what we have with our guest this episode, Ben Braun.

A men's head coach for 37 season (1977-2014), Braun compiled a 615-517 record during stints at Siena Heights University (nee College), Eastern Michigan University, University of California Berkeley, and Rice University.

We talk plenty of hoops with Ben, from his time as a high school player being recruited to play at Northwestern University (but not having the grades to get in) to his pivot from player to coach after leaving the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse to attend UW-Madison. How he took a college head coaching job without ever having been a head coach at any level to the winning three Mid-American Conference Coach of the Year honors and another in the Pac 10.

And, when you've been around the game for as long as Ben, there are plenty of names dropped: From players like Grant Long to Dan Majerle to Earl Boykins to Sean Lampley to coaches like Pete Newell, John Wooden, P.J. Carlesimo, Keith Dambrot, Gary Waters, and Charles Ramsey (the latter three branches from the Ben Braun Coaching Tree).

As much as he enjoyed talking shop, he also enjoyed talking about his beloved Chicago Cubs: His first and still favorite team. How he wore No. 14 because of "Mr. Cub" Ernie Banks, how catcher Dick Bertell made young Ben's day at a ballgame back in the 1960s, and how the aforementioned Banks inadvertently ratted out his brother, Jerry, on the day he belted his 512th - and final - career home run.

And, perhaps the best recollection of them all, is from the last time Ben attended a game at Wrigley and what occurred just a few rows in front of him in the left field corner during the NLCS on October 14, 2003 against the Florida Marlins.

You're still able to hear Ben the Broadcaster on ESPN+, the ACC Network, and Westwood One radio during the college basketball season.

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