Former K-State coach to join Raiders men's basketball staff as assistant

Incoming Three Rivers College men’s basketball coach Robert Kirby has found the next Raiders’ assistant coach.

Memphis native Brandon Branch will join Kirby on the Raider bench next season after spending the last two seasons as a graduate assistant at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas.

“He will be a great addition to our program,” Kirby said. “He’s extremely knowledgeable, very diligent and very organized. He’s very well-connected and an extremely hard worker. He’s great at working with the players individually as well as collectively. He’s very knowledgeable about improvement and is a people person.”

Branch brings an impressive resume to the Raiders’ bench. He helped K-State reach the elite eight of the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and assisted in the development of a pair of All-Americans in 2023 Bob Cousy Award winner Markquis Nowell and forward Keyontae Johnson. Nowell won the Bob Cousy Award and Johnson was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, while both also were named first-team all-Big 12 and third-team All-Americans

Before coming to Kansas State, Branch was the head coach at Memphis Day Academy Prep School from 2019-22, where he led the school to a 51-15 record. He also served as a lead youth basketball instructor for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies during that time.

Branch has also served as a graduate assistant coach at Southwestern College in Winfield, Kansas (2018-19), at Whitehaven High School in Memphis (2016-17) and also was a student manager at the University of Memphis from 2015-16.

Branch also played junior college basketball at Walters State Community College in Morristown, Tennessee during the 2014-15 season for Hall of Fame head coach Bill Carlyle.