Larry Brown’s legacy is a difficult one to pin down. On one hand, he’s a brilliant basketball professor. On another hand, his perpetual wanderlust has made him unreliable to count on long-term. During a nearly half-century of coaching, Brown has accumulated more Air Miles than a Secretary of State taking 13 different jobs, with only one stint lasting longer than five years.
Unfortunately, Brown returned to form Friday by resigning as head coach of the Mustangs. Ironically, the reason for his abrupt departure is because the nomadic 75-year-old head coach was upset over the length of his latest contract extension offer. Entering the final season of his five-year-deal, Brown sought a deal similar to the six years that 47-year-old football coach Chad Morris signed on the dotted line for in 2014. Reportedly, Brown did relent, but SMU pushed until Brown’s ego was damaged beyond repair by their hardball tactics.
Via Dallas Morning News:
Brown declined to get into specifics about what SMU offered versus what he was seeking. But a source close to Brown told The News that Brown initially sought a long-term deal similar to six-year guarantee that SMU football coach Chad Morris received.
As the months wore on, the source close to Brown said, he lowered his request to five years, then four. SMU’s most recent and final offer, the source said, was for three years.
When Brown accepted the Southern Methodist head coaching job in 2012, the Mustangs were reeling from a 13-win season. By the end of his second campaign, Brown had performed the basketball equivalent of landing a commercial flight on the Hudson and SMU finished the season 27-10, although they were unceremoniously snubbed by the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee. The Mustangs were even briefly considered a national championship contender and top-five team until Emmanuel Mudiay the nation’s No. 1 prep point guard opted to play in China instead of attend SMU.
Unfortunately, the avoidable NCAA penalties halted SMU’s rise and Brown’s success in recent years. Last season, Brown was suspended for nine games and the Mustangs were banned from the postseason after he lied to NCAA enforcement investigators about his knowledge of academic fraud. For all the good Brown does as a sideline tactician, he still has a tendency to end stints inelegantly.
This time is no different. Brown could have coached one final season. Instead, he clumsily exited in the middle of July. Brown will be missed be at SMU, but his decision to skip out on SMU, hours after Thursday night’s shootout in Dallas has also earned him criticism.
Coach-in-waiting Tim Jankovich will assume Brown’s responsibility as part of a succession plan laid out when Brown brought him onto the staff in 2012. At that time, Jankovich was the head coach at Illinois State for five seasons where he won 104 games in five seasons. It’ll be his duty to prevent a program that had earned relevancy at the Hilltop from sinking back into their program’s nadir.
