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Sources: Larry Brown, SMU agree
Apr 18, 2012

Larry Brown has agreed to become the head coach at SMU, sources told ESPN.com.

Brown, however, denied later Tuesday that he had accepted the job.

"At this point I have not been offered the job so I cannot have accepted it," Brown told ESPN.com senior writer Andy Katz on Tuesday night. "I don't do anything without [agent and longtime mentor] Joe Glass' blessing. And as of Tuesday night he hasn't talked to [SMU athletic director] Steve Orsini."

On Wednesday, Brown told The Associated Press he has serious interest in the position, but reiterated that it had not been offered to him.

But according to sources, the only holdup involves Brown's assistants. Brown has offered Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich a "coach-in-waiting" position, sources said.

A source close to Brown told Katz that Jankovich is waiting to get a written contract that guarantees he would be the next head coach after the 71-year-old Brown's departure. Brown did say he has no timetable, is healthy and would coach as long as possible. That's why Jankovich would need assurances that he would be the next head coach, even if that was three or four years away, since he has a good job at Illinois State and a potential Missouri Valley title team returning.

Jankovich did not answer calls to his cell phone Tuesday afternoon.

Kansas coach Bill Self, who worked with Jankovich at Tulsa, Illinois and Kansas, said he hadn't talked to Jankovich in "two or three days."

"One thing I do know," Self said, "is that he loves Larry."

Jankovich has been around Brown a lot over the years because of his relationship with Self, who considers Brown a mentor.

Former Illinois assistant Jerrance Howard also is expected to join Brown's staff, along with former Kentucky assistant Rod Strickland. Howard is regarded as one of the country's top recruiters. Strickland has spent the past two years on John Calipari's staff in an administrative role. Strickland was a first-round pick out of DePaul in 1998 and played in the NBA until 2005.

Brown is the only coach in history to win an NCAA title and an NBA championship. He has not coached since 2010, when he resigned from the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.

SMU, which is moving in 2013 to the Big East from Conference USA, fired Matt Doherty last month after six seasons.

The Mustangs haven't won an NCAA tournament game since 1988, the year Brown led Kansas to the national championship.

PonyTime wrote:When SMU was added to the Big East along with Houston and UCF, I am pretty sure that it was us that most of the Big East traditional schools had a problem with - who knew that we would be the perennial top 20 powerhouse of a basketball program.

If we weren't in the Big East, would Larry have taken the job?

It sure was nice to be in the same league as Notre Dame for 5 minutes.

CalallenStang wrote:

PonyTime wrote:When SMU was added to the Big East along with Houston and UCF, I am pretty sure that it was us that most of the Big East traditional schools had a problem with - who knew that we would be the perennial top 20 powerhouse of a basketball program.

If we weren't in the Big East, would Larry have taken the job?

It sure was nice to be in the same league as Notre Dame for 5 minutes.

It was not us. It was Tulane.

https://sportsnola.com/marquette-ad-not ... -big-east/

East Coast Mustang wrote:Hope the next five years bring a few more tourney wins than the previous five

PonySnob wrote:

CalallenStang wrote:

PonyTime wrote:When SMU was added to the Big East along with Houston and UCF, I am pretty sure that it was us that most of the Big East traditional schools had a problem with - who knew that we would be the perennial top 20 powerhouse of a basketball program.

If we weren't in the Big East, would Larry have taken the job?

It sure was nice to be in the same league as Notre Dame for 5 minutes.

It was not us. It was Tulane.

https://sportsnola.com/marquette-ad-not ... -big-east/

Thanks President Turner!

smupony94 wrote:Amazing you still think they left because of Tulane