Evan Bradds: The Man Behind the Coach

In Jamestown, Ohio, a farming community with two stoplights and just over 2,000 people, a dad paves his backyard into a basketball court for his family.
 
Little does he know his oldest son will become the all-time leading scorer at Belmont University, coach on two NBA teams, take Duke University to the Elite Eight and then return to Belmont as a head coach.
 
Evan Bradds came back to his roots as a Bruin in April when he accepted the job of Belmont's new head men's basketball coach.
 
While he's been all over the country, his foundation is still in Ohio.
 
Generations of their family have resided in Jamestown, producing basketball stars and countless children over six feet tall.
 
"I'm very proud to be from Jamestown," Bradds said.
 
As teenagers, it was Bradds, his little brother Ethan and their eight first-cousins, all boys, going to the same high school.
 
Over the summers though, Bradds and his friends spent their time either biking around the lake, fishing or most importantly, playing hours and hours of pickup games in Bradds' driveway.
 
Basketball was important from the beginning. 
 
Bradds' grandfather, Gary Bradds, played for Ohio State University and was awarded the 1964 National Player of the Year award as well as had his jersey number, #35, retired by the school.
 
Gary's son, David Bradds, went on to play at the University of Dayton before marrying his wife Michelle and having two kids.
 
Regardless, "I never felt pressure from anyone in my family to ever play basketball," Bradds said. 
 
He dabbled in soccer, baseball and football, but basketball was where his athleticism and tenacity on the court were showcased the most.
 
Being from such a small town, his teammates were pretty much the same from third grade up until senior year of high school; one of those teammates being one of those aforementioned cousins.
 
As he grew as a player, he began to travel more, playing against more schools and more cities, eventually playing for a team in Dayton. Looking back, he said that playing in Dayton  "really showed my love for the game," Bradds said.
 
That love for the game would prove useful as his passion for the sport would bring him to Nashville, Tennessee to be a Bruin under Coach Rick Byrd. 
 
His time at Belmont would be defined by the players and coaches he had the privilege to play alongside.
 
"The people that I was able to be around every day, specifically my teammates, made it what it was," Bradds said. 
 
It wasn't that he was a two-time Associated Press Honorable Mention All-American.
 
Or that he led Belmont to four conference championships and three Postseason NIT appearances. And don't forget about the 2015 NCAA Tournament, as well.
 
And it wasn't that he holds the Belmont NCAA Division I career scoring record at 1,921 points or even that he was named Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year in both 2016 and 2017.
 
"The stats… I don't care. At the end of the day, they don't really mean much, people forget about them quickly," Bradds said. "But I'll never forget some of the memories that I had with my teammates, whether it was on the court or off the court."
 
The success Bradds found at Belmont eventually led him to receiving an invite to work out with the Indiana Pacers.
 
In an unfortunate twist of fate, Bradds tore his ACL 15 minutes into that workout.
 
"At the time, it was the worst thing that ever happened to me. But long term, thinking back to it, it's a hilarious story and it's probably the best thing that ever happened to me," Bradds said.
 
Bradds was in the midst of rehab when he got a call from Coach Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics, asking him to come work for their G League Team, the Maine Red Claws.
 
"I'd never thought about coaching. [Stevens] basically said 'I think this would be a great opportunity for you to see if coaching is good for you, see if you even like it, and if not, you just rehab your knee and then you go play later,'" Bradds said. "I look back on it and it was perfect timing…I fell in love with it from day one."
 
His love for coaching would keep him at Boston for five seasons, working in player development as a "glorified practice dummy," as he said, before leading him across the country to Salt Lake City, Utah.
 
Bradds was the Utah Jazz NBA Summer League head coach in 2023 and then stayed on with them as an assistant coach for three seasons.
 
His love then took him to "a crash course into college basketball" at Duke, where he served as assistant coach for a season.
 
Then the call from Belmont came. 
 
Having been a sponge under all of the coaches he worked for, Bradds found himself well-equipped and eager to step into his own as a head coach.
 
"All those dudes are elite at what they do, like some of the best in the world, and then on top of that, they're also great people," Bradds said. "It just made me want to be better."
 
Drawing from his time in player development, Bradds came in committed to prioritizing his players and their personal success, in turn benefiting the team.
 
"There was nothing better than working with players and seeing them succeed on the court with something that we had worked on. I found joy in their success. And I think I've taken that from Boston to Utah to Duke to Belmont," Bradds said. 
 
In their five years being married, Bradds and his wife MacKenzie have moved four times for those teams.
 
"This is a life that I never thought I would have, and then her being from a small town as well, probably never would have thought she would be in too," Bradds said. "She's been the ultimate cheerleader."
 
As they enter this new chapter in Nashville, Bradds' hopes for this Belmont team are rooted in his love for the game.
 
Like Bradds, team captain and senior Isaiah West is a family guy.
 
Growing up with five siblings and an even larger extended family, West has been "molded" by his family into the person and player he is today.
 
West was forced to slow down at the end of last season as he underwent surgery for a lingering injury. Slowing down really helped him to refocus on what mattered most to him and grow in his mental strength and maturity.
 
"I think in ways I've matured…being more vocal and just being someone that the younger guys on our team kind of look to for advice," West said.
 
These are the kinds of things that make West a great captain.
 
At first, being captain was a daunting task. But since settling into the rhythm of practice and anticipation for this season, West has found his footing alongside Bradds' guidance.
 
"I think it was really just when he got the job, I think he kind of put it in guys' minds that 'I'm here for you guys, I'm all about you guys,'" West said. "I think that really created some ease and took tension off a lot of people's shoulders."
 
Associate Head Coach Brian Ayers, who is beginning his 29th season at Belmont as a coach, knew from their initial workouts with Bradds that he was going to bring something special to this team.
 
"What's always going to stick with me is once he got here, during the first sort of individual workouts we had last spring that he was here, I mean, he laced them up, put practice gear on, and he was right in the middle of drills," Ayers said. "I could tell he was all in."
 
Bradds expects his players to also be all in, and in turn gives a lot of himself back to them.
 
Whether that means meaningful conversations after practice or it means Bradds himself jumping into practice and being just as physical as his players.
 
West values how Bradds is an open and eager communicator.
 
"I've really never been around a coach who just wants to hear from his guys as much as Bradds does," West said.
 
Not only does he want to hear from his players, he also wants to be the one to challenge them.
 
At a practice shortly after Bradds was hired, West was on the side of the gym, not yet participating due to his surgery when he looked out onto the court to something unexpected.
 
"A couple of guys are in a workout and I'm like… is he out there guarding all the guys?"
 
And there Bradds was, in the middle of the action, throwing himself right back in.
 
"It's kind of become the norm around here, for him to kind of step in and be physically out there and not just on the side," West said.
 
Having coached Bradds, Ayers appreciates the ways Bradds hasn't strayed away from who he was as a player as he entered the coaching world. 
 
"He's just always moving. He's juiced up, and that's his competitive nature. That's what he was when we were recruiting him," Ayers said. "You could tell he was a kid that loved to play basketball, loved to win, loved being around teammates, and that's who he still is."
 
He's still the guy who is going to jump in.
 
"It's refreshing just to see how engaged and interactive he is with the players… he wants to be right in there with them, winning a drill, pushing them," Ayers said.
 
Director of Sports Medicine Kim Anderson, who was an athletic trainer when Bradds was a player, feels this same refreshing energy of Bradds re-entering the program.
 
 "There's this energy and excitement around the program that he is bringing right now," Anderson said. "10 years in, I'm excited to go to practice."
 
This excitement shows Bradds' commitment to being competitive and resilient enough that nobody will be able to keep the Bruins down for long.
 
"I just hope when we go out there, people are going to see how competitive we are. We're going to probably lose some games, everyone loses some games, but if we do get beat…you're gonna have to knock us down and keep knocking us down."
 
This attitude is one that Bradds had as a player at Belmont, that is still prevalent in his life as a coach. 
 
Ayers said that the three things that translate from Bradds as a player to being a really good coach are "his understanding of the game, his feel for the game, and his competitiveness."
 
"I've never seen a really, really good coach who wasn't really, really competitive as a player. They're just wired to try to find ways to win," Ayers said.
 
Bradds' own tenacity and competitive nature translates to the team's values on the court.
 
"The main thing he harps on is just compete," West said. "Regardless if you're right, if you're wrong, you mess up, just keep competing."
 
Even with this in mind, West also makes sure to emphasize the value Bradds places on being unselfish. 
 
At the end of the day, they are still a team with one goal. They can either compete for minutes amongst each other, or they can work together and encourage one another to compete on the court and defeat the opposing team.
 
The biggest lesson that West says Bradds has taught him, is that "we're always the hardest judges of ourselves."
 
Regardless of what Bradds brings in fresh, he trusts this program.
 
Anderson is just one person who feels his trust as an instrumental benefit to the program.
 
"He's trusted me to do my job and given me space to do it," while also encouraging his players to "trust the process," Anderson said.
 
Through this trust, Anderson has also been able to stress the importance of accountability to the players.
 
"Accountability is one of the highest forms of love. If somebody really loves you, they're going to hold you accountable," Anderson said.
 
And there is definitely no lack of love for one another in this program… which is perhaps what has made it special over many decades.
 
"I don't ever want to lose what Belmont basketball is about," Bradds said. "To be a part of this team, you got to be a high level human."
 
What Anderson loves so much about Belmont basketball is that "We want to be competitive, but ultimately, like we want to do it the right way."
 
"I just think it's a culture of everybody is not above anybody else… Everybody's going to carry stuff off the bus, everybody's going to help the managers," Anderson said. "That's who we are, and I don't want to ever see that change."
 
Ayers has seen this expectation be set constantly over the course of his 28 seasons at Belmont, emphasizing how Coach Rick Byrd really shaped Belmont basketball into what it is. 
 
"The guys have stayed the same, but the players have changed," Ayers said.
 
Bradds was the player that he's now coaching.
 
When asked who he is without basketball, Bradds said "Easy answer is I have no idea. Basketball has been a part of my life forever, as far back as I can remember."
 
"He's just a small town kid from Ohio, and he's never changed that," Ayers said.
 
A small town kid, constantly encouraged by his family, who has had the opportunity to work with incredible basketball role models. 
 
"I am a product of a lot of people investing time and resources into me," Bradds said.