[deleted] V's full column on Larry Brown...
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13772294/smu-larry-brown-banned-coaching-college-basketballI loved this guy's response to the [deleted] V story and had to post - not even an SMU alum...
Ari M. Eden · Hofstra University
Disappointed in Dickie V who always seemed like a standup guy to me. You can't just say he landed 3 programs on probation without stating the facts of each instance and circumstance. Most importantly the punishment should fit the crime and to ruin arguably the greatest basketball coach in history's storied career (it would be hard for him to get another job at his age) is disgraceful. Let's repeat the facts. Larry did nothing wrong at UCLA. He inherited 2 ineligible players who were there before he got there. The punishment may have come on his watch, but the infraction didn't. At Kansas, all he did was give a little $ to a kid to visit a very ill or dying relative. The kid didn't even end up enrolling at Kansas. The punishment of probation there definitely didn't fit the crime. Finally, at SMU, the actions did not involve LB directly. You're talking about a coach who spent 25 years out of the college game and it was an assistant who was directly guilty, not him. This is also a new thing where head coaches are hammered for the actions of assistants and it's ridiculous IMO. People have to be responsible for their own actions and head coaches can't have eyes in the backs of their heads. I'm sure there was an adjustment period for LB back in the college game too. Cut him some slack to learn every new nuance. We're talking one minor infraction with Keith Frazier that has been hounding this program for nearly 3 years already. All LB did was take a completely dormant or even non-existent program to national relevancy with all this crap anyway, lol. Another amazing reclamation project in a brilliant career of turnarounds. Enough! It's ridiculous. Anyone who's ever met Coach Brown knows he's a great guy who sincerely cares about young men on and off the court. He always teaches the game the right way as his slogan goes, and he even spends chunks of his free time traelling around to clinics for kids, etc.. Basketball is his life, and he lives in the gym. He's completely miserable without it. Dickie V might want to ruin his life and legacy for some innocuous nonsense, but I just don't think that's right. Maybe he's still mad that Larry's brother replaced him as HC of the Pistons in the 70s. SMU might have delayed initially, but they did self report, bottom line. He didn't try to cover anything up. Perhaps he could have been more proactive, but it was not his wrongdoing and calling him a liar is stretching semantics. He quickly realized a potential problem and reported it. So he waited a whole month? Have you read the mountain of ridiculous NCAA bylaws? Again, this is a coach returning to college after a long time in the pros. SMU also self imposed sanctions, the assistant coach left, as did the secretary, and Frazier was ruled ineligible for a huge chunk of games through the end of the season. Now you want to ban them from this year's tournament, ruin another season for innocent kids on a heck of a team, and hurt future recruiting with scholarship losses too. Are you kidding me? The NCAA clearly has it out for Brown and this program. They were also digging for stuff on Mudiay and that may have cost last year's team a real shot at an NCAA crown. Remember that BS goaltending call in the tournament too. The shot was short and didn't graze the rim. Brown, the only coach in basketball history to win a college and pro title, a coach who has taken 11 programs to the postseason and multiple teams to finals at all levels, deserves much better after 40 plus years in the game and giving so much back to so many. Hopefully SMU sticks by him or some smart NBA team with a shot at a championship comes calling. At 75, he still has the energy of a guy half his age. Final point, if this was Calipari, ironically one of LB's best friends, Rick Pitino, Coach K, or Dean Smith I have a funny feeling Dickie V wouldn't be nearly as adamant in calling for banishment. Maybe we should go digging to find out how Coach Cal, the annointed genius, collects 5 star recruits every year, even for his bench players. Heck, his one and dones make up half the draft lottery each summer and the media actually has the nerve to question ethics in this case? You really think those Kentucky guys go there for school? Want to buy a bridge? I think looking at a case like UK might just find something more telling than an assistant coach and secretary helping a kid on a test that he didn't need to enroll anyway. I'm not even calling for that, but call a spade a spade and don't be a phony hypocrite. Let's calm down and keep some persepctive. The NCAA ignores far worse and has many skeletons in their own closet as well. I can't stand selective sanctimony. The wording in their ruling doesn't even make any sense. Remember, when you cast stones at others for nonsense you may end up getting hit in the crossfire someday. This is reminiscent of Coach Pearl wasting 3 years of his life for inviting a kid to a freakin BBQ a few months early. The NCAA is truly a joke. Selective moral outrage and double standard hypocrisy. Like most college bodies, the organization must be made up of deluded liberals who think only they know to do the right thing and lecture others. Instead, they are actually the biggest violators of moral codes and make a complete farce of the process of supposed justice.
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:54 pm
