Will Brown Won't Return as Albany CBB HC After 20 Years with Program

The Will Brown era at Albany has ended. 

In a release from the university, Brown said he and the athletic department "agreed to mutually part ways" after 20 years. He was in the final year of a contract extension, according to the Associated Press. 

Brown compiled a 315-295 record and brought the program to five NCAA tournament appearances, including a run of three straight from 2013-15.  

The 49-year-old led the program to five America East championships and two conference regular-season titles. After a 14-18 campaign in 2019-20, the Great Danes finished 7-9—their third consecutive losing season. 

"Anyone who knows me knows this decision was extraordinarily difficult," Brown said, per the release. "But I leave the University at Albany with an enormous sense of pride in the positive impact that my staff, my family and, most important, the student-athletes I had the honor of coaching, have had on UAlbany basketball and the greater Albany community."

Brown initially joined the program as an assistant, but replaced Scott Beeten during the 2001-02 season, according to Pete Dougherty of the Times Union. At 30, he became the second-youngest active Division I coach, and he was tasked with helping transform Albany into a legitimate competitor. The school had just joined Division I in 1999, per the AP. 

Before his run at Albany, he had coached Sullivan County (New York) Community College for three seasons, where he led the group to a 90-10 record. 

The school, which currently lists associate head coach Jon Iati as the interim head coach, said it will begin a national search for Brown's replacement.