Head Basketball Coach Kyle Brumett has built his coaching foundation on turning his teams into contenders anywhere he goes. Entering his 13th season as head coach of the Little Giants, Brumett’s career record sits at 199-113 (63.8%) and 355-192 (63.6%) across all 20 years of his time as a head coach.
Hailing from Jeffersonville, IN, Brumett has emphasized an unwavering resiliency and determination to show his dedication to any team he was a part of. That resiliency was displayed throughout his high school and college days, with Hanover College making it all the way to the Elite Eight in his sophomore year of college.
Brumett graduated from Hanover College in 1998 with a degree in physical education. He later earned a master’s degree in recreation and sports management from Indiana State University in 2004.
When asked what led him to becoming a head coach, Brumett cited his love for the game, along with his desire to impact that game in any facet that he could.
“I grew up in the Southern Indiana hotbed of basketball,” said Brumett. “The more I played, the more I realized there were ways to contribute that might not have been scoring.”
Before his time as a head coach, Brumett was an assistant coach at DePauw University for seven years, where the Tigers made multiple NCAA tournament appearances.
In the 2006-07 season, Brumett had his first stint as Head Coach of Lakeland College, where he went 33-22 in two seasons, including a Northern Athletics Conference title in 2008.
Brumett then left Lakeland to become the Head Coach of the Defiance College Yellow Jackets for six seasons. In his first year as Head Coach at Defiance, Brumett led his team to an 18-9 season, followed up by a 23-6 season in 2009-10. The Yellow Jackets also secured an NCAA tournament berth, along with winning a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference championship. Brumett’s record at Defiance sits at an impressive 103-57 (64.4%).
Yet, team success was not the only thing Brumett sought as a head coach.
“I knew I wanted to be at a small college,” Brumett said. “Academics became more and more important to me [as I got into coaching], so Division III always made sense to me.”
Brumett said his upbringing and his wife, Steffanie, helped make Wabash the right fit.
“The way I was raised, along with my college coaches, showed me how to keep grinding when things got tough,” said Brumett. “That’s just the daily life here at Wabash, so I knew it was a really good fit for me.”
Brumett also credits his connection with former head coach Mac Petty H’82, the winningest coach in Wabash basketball history, and his early introduction of Wabash both as a player at Hanover and as an assistant coach at DePauw.
“My college coach had a really high opinion of Coach Petty,” Brumett explained. “At the time, I didn’t know that Wabash would be a good landing spot, but as it continued to be right in front of me, both as a player and coach, I knew Wabash was the right choice.”
Since arriving at Wabash in 2014, Brumett has implemented the success he had at his previous colleges here at Wabash.
In his first season, Brumett led the Little Giants to a 18-9 record, including a 11-3 record at home and a first-round NCAC conference championship win.
When asked how Brumett implements team success regardless of where he coaches, he broke it down into two simple factors: recruiting enough talent and making sure his players are dedicated to the work being put in.
And it is clear that those two factors have been working hand-in-hand since arriving in Crawfordsville. In one of the more notable year-to-year turnarounds, Brumett led a 12-14 team in the 2017-18 season, to a staggering 21-6 record in the following season.
That turnaround was in large part due to the emergence of one of the greatest players in Wabash College basketball history, guard Jack Davidson ’22. In his sophomore campaign, Davidson averaged 25.1 points per game, while shooting 43.4% from three. Davidson, alongside many of his teammates, would continue to grow into one of the most impressive teams Wabash basketball ever had to offer.
In the 2021-2022 season, Brumett and Davidson led Wabash to a 28-4 overall record and a 16-1 conference record that resulted in a Final Four appearance in the NCAA tournament.
This included a 42 point game for Davidson against 12th ranked Emory University. Other wins in the tournament included knocking off 21st ranked Barry College, 22nd ranked Williams College, and 7th Illinois Wesleyan University before ultimately falling to 16th Elmhurst University.
Wabash was ranked as high as #5 during the season.
Davidson averaged 25.5 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game while shooting 48.2% from three and 91% from the free throw line in his senior season.
“I tell our starters now that they have no idea how much time Davidson spent after hours in Chadwick (Court),” said Brumett. “You like to have enough of that in your program.”
Since the miraculous Final Four run, Wabash has posted winning records in every season, including a NCAC conference championship win and NCAA tournament berth in the 2023-24 season, finishing the season 20-9, and 13-3 in conference play.
“Winning is good for not only the team, but for the whole campus,” said Brumett.
And he has continued to do just that.
“He has helped me be a better Wabash man both on and off the court,” said center Tyler Horton ’27.
When talking about the upcoming season, Brumett acknowledged the new landscape of the team. With five incoming freshmen and junior transfers Wes Aigner ’28 and Dakota Candler ’28, Brumett described the team as “evolving.”
“Everyone wants an immediate return on investment,” said Brumett. “We sell the future here, and we’ve got to have guys that are willing to stay the course.”
With the senior class being the last of the 2023-24 NCAC Conference Championship team, the Little Giants hope that success, and how to get to that success can be passed along.
“Coach Brum wants the best for you,” said guard Deric Cannady ’29. “Him demanding nothing but the best out of the team is going to help us in the long run, whether that’s on or off the court.”
As Brumett looks ahead to his now 13th year at the helm of the Little Giants basketball team, his legacy of success, team-building, and mentorship continues to impact the lives of not only his players and coaches, but every Little Giant that has gotten the pleasure of watching him coach.