Brandeis hired a new men’s basketball coach, Interim Athletic Director Jeff Ward announced Monday. Coach Jean Bain is the 11th coach in Brandeis men’s basketball history. Before coming to Brandeis, he was the associate head coach for Columbia University’s men’s basketball team since 2017.

Prior to working at Columbia, Bain was the associate head coach at Dartmouth College from 2012 to 2016, and before that, coached at the University of New Hampshire from 2005 to 2012. Bain accepted Brandeis’ offer of employment Saturday, Nov. 29.

Bain played basketball all four years of high school and throughout college at Northeastern University, where he was East Rookie of the Year in 1999. Bain was also assistant coach at Worcester Polytechnic Institute from 2004 to 2005.

Bain said he was excited to start at Brandeis. “You know, having been an assistant coach for 15 years, you know the ultimate goal is you want to be a head coach,” said Bain. “Once this position became open, and me being from New England and me growing up knowing about the Brandeis brand…. as a program, I knew this is where I wanted to be.”

He continued, “There’s no question this is a terrific, terrific place and they [Brandeis] have all the resources and the support here to be successful. It’s gonna take some time because of the way this process was taken,” Bain said, referencing the firing of basketball coach Brian Meehan after allegations of racist and discriminatory conduct. He continued, “But I think if we do it the right way, which we will, there’s no question that we can be successful here.”

Bain was chosen from six candidates who came to Brandeis for all-day on-campus interviews, Ward told The Hoot. Each candidate met the men’s basketball team while on-campus. All of the candidates spoke with the women’s basketball coach, Carol Simon, the men’s soccer coach Gabe Margolis, the two men’s basketball assistant coaches, all five of the athletics administration staff and Chief Diversity Officer and Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Mark Brimhall-Vargas.

Ward emphasized that this was one of the most competitive applicant pools he had seen in a job search. The decision to hire Bain was made between Ward, President Ron Liebowitz and Provost Lisa Lynch. There was a general consensus to hire Bain, said Ward in an interview with The Hoot.

Ward cited Bain’s connection with the team as one of the reasons he was a good candidate. “I was really impressed with how quickly he connected with the students,” Ward said. “He in a very genuine way connected with them very quickly.”

Bain spoke briefly about the circumstances that lead to his hiring. The previous basketball coach, Brian Meehan, was fired after allegations of racist and discriminatory abuse directed at the student players. After his firing, President Liebowitz announced an investigation into the Brandeis athletics department and the school climate as a whole.

The first report of that investigation, which was released Sept. 4, cited systemic issues in the athletics department and poor procedures as reasons for the drawn out Human Resources investigation into Meehan that lasted over a year, after multiple players complained of his behavior.

Bain commented on the situation. “There’s some really, really good people here. It’s just an unfortunate situation where you know some things were just not handled the right way,” he said. “I think that the kids want to move forward… when I sat down and met with them, the main thing was, ‘Coach we knew what went on and now it’s time to play basketball.’”

A second report from the independent investigators is expected in early November. Bain officially began at Brandeis Monday, Sept. 1.