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Larry Brown is a coaching legend by any definition of the word, but the man is not without his many weaknesses.
One of those flaws popped up again on Tuesday, with the NCAA coming down hard on Brown’s Southern Methodist University basketball program in Dallas for what “lack of head coach control.”
ESPN reports the Mustangs will be ineligible for postseason play in the upcoming season, especially damaging leading up to a year in which Brown’s team was expected to compete for a conference title, and in all likelihood, qualify for the NCAA Tournament. On top of that, the former Pistons’ coach will be forced to sit out 9 of the team’s 30 games as an added punishment.
To anyone that has followed the career of Larry Brown, it doesn’t come as a huge shock. His coaching career always seems to carry with it an air of uncertainty and unsteadiness. Even when he was guiding the Pistons deep into the NBA Playoffs, rumors were swirling that he was already scoping out his next gig by opening up talks with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In 1988, Brown took the Kansas Jayhawks, led by Danny Manning, all the way to the national championship. The following year, those same Jayhawks were ruled ineligible for postseason play due to recruiting violations within the basketball program. It is the only time a defending champion was ineligible for play in the following year’s tournament.
The specifics of Brown’s involvement in this latest violation remain a bit unclear (it could involve otherwise ineligible players miraculously becoming eligible), but as the head coach and face of the hoops world at SMU, the responsibility ultimately lies with him.
The Michigan basketball team is slated for a December 8 visit to Dallas to tangle with SMU. If Brown sits the first nine games of the season, then he would be absent for that contest.
Rasheed Wallace always referred to Brown as “Pound for Pound,” a reference to his initials (LB = pound), but also to Sheed’s belief that his coach was the best there was in the game.
There are obviously some that would share that belief. After all, Brown remains the only coach to lead both an NBA and NCAA team to a championship, and is the only coach in NBA history to take eight different teams to the playoffs.
But he’s a coaching nomad for a reason. His style can be unforgiving, his personality hard to embrace, and as evidenced with this latest scandal, his efforts sometimes not entirely kosher.
At 75, Southern Methodist University will be probably be the last stop on the coaching train for Brown. He’ll leave behind a legacy of brilliance and on-court success, but also one of unscrupulousness and a lack of loyalty to any one organization or school.
If you ever wondered how the Pistons could part ways with a coach that stayed for two years and reached the NBA Finals in both of those seasons, today’s news sheds a little bit of light. Larry Brown wins, but he brings baggage. And plenty of it.
