Bill Brown resigned ten games into the 1986–87 basketball season (his second as head coach) at Sacramento State and stated he was suffering from chest pain and stress. He was hired March 27, 1987, as an assistant basketball coach at UT for recruiting. In early July he was arrested in Sacramento on charges of possession of cocaine and possession of paraphernalia for ingesting rock cocaine. He resigned immediately upon his return to UT.
In 1990, while head basketball coach at Kenyon College, he admitted to using drugs and checked himself into a drug treatment center. He resumed his head coaching duties the following year. He then went on to coach successfully at California University of Pennsylvania.