NCAA Basketball

Larry Brown Continues His Quest To Coach Every Basketball Team In America

The Southern Methodist University Mustangs have enlisted the services of Hall of Fame head coach Larry Brown for the next few seasons.Why SMU for Mr. Brown?

Here’s Larry Brown’s coaching resume: 13 head coaching positions at the college and professional level. The only coach to lead eight different NBA teams to the playoffs, and the only coach to win both an NCAA and NBA championship. Over 1,000 career wins. From Brooklyn, New York. Averages a little under three years per coaching position.

Southern Methodist’s athletic resume: Team is named after horses. Football program was shut down in the 1980s for recruiting violations.

On paper, not exactly a match made in heaven. But it looks like Brown, who is 71 years young, is itching to return to the game. And who can blame him? After winning over 1,000 games, it’s hard to go and play shuffle board in Boca Raton, Florida.

And it’s a coup for the Mustangs, who have been looking for a replacement to recently ousted coach Matt Doherty. Doherty posted an 80-109 record in six seasons at SMU.

But don’t expect Brown to be in Dallas for long (SMU is in Dallas, if you didn’t know. I didn’t know either). Besides his record of bolting jobs after just a couple of seasons, SMU is also bringing on Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich as a “coach-in-waiting,” to be elevated to head coach once Brown leaves after “three or four years,” according to ESPN.

So the Mustangs get a Hall of Fame rental who will boost their status as they move to a new conference, a respected coach-in-waiting, and, perhaps, some more wins. And Brown gets to coach under relatively little pressure, at least for the first year or two. Hey, actually: this might not be so bad. Look out, Big East (and Conference USA, for a year)!

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