Professional Grade: How Long Before There is a Brown Out at SMU?

What can Brown do for SMU or what will Brown do to SMU? That is the question! Hiring a coaching fossil such as Larry Brown 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' last year to post an NCAA playoff victory.

Next Town Brown is probably comfortable with nomadic SMU because the Mustangs are joining their third different league since the SWC disbanded in 1996. If Brown can guide SMU to the NCAA playoffs in the next few years 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.

SMU, a total of 55 games under .500 over the last 24 seasons, is already vastly overpaying for an antique bench boss nearly a quarter century removed from the day-to-day college grind, a coach-in-waiting who has never had an NCAA playoff appearance in nine years and two recruiters hired from former powerhouses that have fallen on hard times. But is an even more critical cost in integrity looming? There is a shaky track record to worry about inasmuch as UCLA and Kansas each were on probation the season following Brown's departure.

After checking the national registry for truck drivers with standout sons/players (remember Danny Manning), Brown's first significant act with SMU was a down-and-dirty deed discarding several players at this late stage because they "weren't good enough to play for him." We're taking for granted that Brown's "good" refers to on-the-court performance rather than off-the-hardwood decorum. He apparently is more fond of bringing in a troubled transfer such as Josiah Turner from Arizona (before he abandoned ship for the pros during the summer) rather than retaining Jeremiah Samarrippas, who was SMU's captain as a sophomore. Perhaps Dean Smith should have treated a similar undersized guard the same shabby way when the Hall of Famer became North Carolina's head coach in 1961-62 after Brown averaged a modest 4.5 ppg as a sophomore the previous season.

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 in this year's NBA playoffs, has a shot at turning things around quickly for the Mustangs because the Big East Conference will be a shell of its former self after Pittsburgh, Syracuse and West Virginia depart for other leagues. But isn't there something more important than meandering all over the country seeking nirvana?

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. It's a star-crossed crossing over from college to the NBA. Following is an alphabetical list summarizing the NBA careers of Brown and 14 additional individuals who aligned with NBA franchises as head coaches after marshalling a college team to the Final Four:

*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.