Eastern Michigan men's basketball assistant coach Mike Brown has been promoted to the position of associate head coach, the school announced on Thursday.

Brown, 33, is a Huron High School graduate where he was an all-state player during the 1996-97 season and a former Ann Arbor News all-area player. He was hired as a member of the Eastern Michigan staff shortly after head coach Rob Murphy was hired in April of 2011.

"Over the past year, Mike has proven to be a valuable asset to our coaching staff," said Murphy in a press release. "His efforts both with our current student-athletes and in recruiting have made him very deserving of this title and responsibility. Mike was my first hire at Eastern, and his contributions to our program continue to help us build toward the vision we all share for EMU Basketball."

Eastern won its first Mid-American Conference West Division title in school history last year and finished 14-18 with a 9-7 conference record. Eastern is 6-2 on the year and on Saturday beat Purdue for the program's first win over a Big Ten opponent since 1997.

"I am extremely grateful to Coach Murphy for allowing me to be a part of the Eastern Michigan basketball program and for his confidence in my ability to help restore this program," Brown said in the release. "I consider myself fortunate to work for a head coach of his caliber, but more importantly he is a great person. We have an entire staff full of high-character people who are excellent at what they do and we learn from each other daily. I am humbled by this opportunity and could not be more excited about what is on the horizon for EMU Basketball."

Brown began his coaching career as an assistant at Belleville High School and has head coaching experience at Schoolcraft Community College in Livonia and Motlow State Community College in Tennessee. He has also been the director of basketball operations at Kent State and was an assistant at the University of South Alabama where he was also recruiting coordinator from 2009-2011 prior to coming to Eastern. Brown played for two years at Siena Heights and two years at Wayne State.

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.