Professional Grade: Assessing What Next Town Brown Has Done For SMU
"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." - Eleanor Roosevelt
What can Brown do for SMU or what will Brown do to SMU? That was the question when the Mustangs hired coaching fossil Larry Brown. After returning to the national polls for the first time in 29 years, his short stewardship has already generated more national publicity than Southern Methodist basketball enjoyed collectively since 1988, which was Brown's last year as a college coach and the Mustangs' final year to post an NCAA playoff victory.
Brown, unafraid to taste experience to the utmost, is probably comfortable with nomadic SMU because the Mustangs joined their third different league since the SWC disbanded in 1996. If Brown guides SMU to the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1993, it will be the equivalent of him directing UCLA to an NCAA runner-up finish in his debut season with the Bruins in 1980. If he can win an NCAA Tournament game with the Mustangs, it will be the equivalent of him capturing a national title in his swan song with Kansas in 1988. After all, SMU was a total of 55 games under .500 over the 24 seasons prior to Brown's arrival.
Only a splendid tactician can be the lone individual ever to win NCAA and NBA titles. And Brown, who coached nearly half of the franchises regularly in recent NBA playoffs, has capitalized on his shot at turning things around quickly for the Mustangs because the American Athletic Conference is a shell of the old Big East after Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia departed for other premier leagues.
Brown, one of six men to be hired by an NBA team after winning an NCAA championship, is the only one in this category to compile a winning NBA playoff record. Three other coaches directed teams to the NCAA Final Four and the NBA championship series - Jack Ramsay (St. Joseph's 1961 and Portland Trail Blazers 1977), Fred Schaus (West Virginia 1959 and the Los Angeles Lakers 1962), 1963, 1965, 1966) and Butch van Breda Kolff (Princeton 1965 and the Lakers 1968, 1969). Neither Ramsay (8-11) nor Schaus (6-7) finished their collegiate coaching careers with winning NCAA playoff records, however.
Only Phil Jackson and Pat Riley coached in and won more NBA playoff games than Brown. Brad Stevens, after leaving Butler for the Boston Celtics, is discerning that it's a star-crossed crossing over from college to the NBA. Just compare Brown's pro credentials to the losing NBA coaching records of the last two NCAA titlists - Kentucky's John Calipari and Louisville's Rick Pitino. Following is an alphabetical list summarizing the NBA careers of Brown and 14 additional individuals who aligned with NBA franchises as head coaches after marshaling a college team to the Final Four:
| Coach | NCAA Final Four Team(s) | NBA Years | Regular-Season | Playoff Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Larry Brown | UCLA '80/Kansas '86 & '88 | 27 | 1,098-904 | 100-93 |
| John Calipari | Massachusetts '96/Memphis '08/Kentucky '11 & '12 | 3 | 72-112 | 0-3 |
| P.J. Carlesimo | Seton Hall '89 | 8 | 204-296 | 3-9 |
| *Bob Feerick | Santa Clara '52 | 2 | 63-74 | 0-2 |
| Ed Jucker | Cincinnati '61, '62 & '63 | 2 | 80-84 | 0-0 |
| Doggie Julian | Holy Cross '47 & '48 | 2 | 47-81 | 0-0 |
| Frank McGuire | St. John's '52/North Carolina '57 | 1 | 49-31 | 6-6 |
| Mike Montgomery | Stanford '98 | 2 | 68-96 | 0-0 |
| Harold Olsen | Ohio State '39, '44, '45 & '46 | 3 | 95-63 | 7-11 |
| Rick Pitino | PC '87/Kentucky '93, '96 & '97/Louisville '05 & '12 | 6 | 192-220 | 6-7 |
| Jack Ramsay | St. Joseph's '61 | 21 | 864-783 | 44-58 |
| Fred Schaus | West Virginia '59 | 7 | 315-245 | 23-38 |
| Jerry Tarkanian | UNLV '77, '87, '90 & '91 | 1 | 9-11 | 0-0 |
| Butch van Breda Kolff | Princeton '65 | 9 | 266-253 | 21-12 |
| Tex Winter | Kansas State '58 & '64 | 2 | 51-78 | 0-0 |
*Feerick's NBA record includes one season with the Washington Capitols (1949-50) before he was named coach at Santa Clara.
NOTES: Jucker (Rollins), Julian (Dartmouth), McGuire (South Carolina), Olsen (Northwestern), Pitino (Kentucky and Louisville), Schaus (Purdue), Tarkanian (Fresno State), van Breda Kolff (Lafayette and Hofstra) and Winter (Northwestern and Long Beach State) returned to college as head coaches after their stints in the NBA. . . . Ken Loeffler was coach of the St. Louis Bombers and Providence Steamrollers for three seasons (1946-47 through 1948-49) before directing La Salle to back-to-back Final Fours (1954 champion and 1955 runner-up). . . . Phil Woolpert, coach of San Francisco's back-to-back NCAA champions (1955 and 1956), coached the San Francisco Saints for one season in the old American Basketball League.