On March 21, 2008 John Brady was named the 15th head basketball coach at Arkansas State University.
After a year as a graduate assistant at Mississippi State, Brady began coaching in the high school ranks of Louisiana.
After returning to MSU to serve eight years as an assistant under Bob Boyd and Richard Williams, Brady was named head coach at Samford University in 1992.
However, due to the loss of Stromile Swift and Jabari Smith to the 2000 NBA draft, the Tigers could not carry their momentum to the next year, going 13–16 in 2001.
Led by Glen "Big Baby" Davis and Tyrus Thomas, the Tigers won their first outright SEC regular season championship since 1985, and earned a #4 seed in the NCAA tournament.
Set at the RCA Dome in Indianapolis, Indiana, the 2006 Final Four was the first since 1980 to feature no #1 seeds (LSU, #2 UCLA, #3 Florida and #11 George Mason).
Conference tournament champion Brady became the LSU Tigers basketball color analyst starting in the 2017–2018 season.