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How did SMU land Larry Brown, a HOF coach with success in college and the pros? There wasn't a ton of cash thrown at him. $800K/yr? So it wouldn't be about money or legacy.

Positives:
* Asst coach salaries. SMU paid for a highly thought of associate HC who makes about $700K/yr?? He got Malagi from UH for 2x his salary (~ $200K).
* Facility improvements. Recent practice facility. Moody upgrade was in the works.
* Top notch competition. Inclusion in Big East.
* June Jones had some impact? Gerald Turner impact? Previous AD?
* Comment about 16 yo daughter graduating from SMU indicates he likes the academics and atmosphere.

Other:
* He's 70 years old with some light infractions that followed him in the past??
* He's not from Texas and hasn't been a college coach since 1988 (KU).

Larry's an amazing hire and other schools want to replicate the success. It all seems to boil down to convincing a guy with tremendous past success and a continuing drive to win to come to your school.

I thought he was making closer to 2 mill a year......

And he lives to coach.

He called us. He basically begged us for the job.

He wanted to make this the crowning jewel on a coaching career that didn't need it and will most likely never be equaled.

If he could take SMU, a dog sh@t program that was a dumpster fire and make them like a Georgetown, as he's always said he wanted to, then it would be his greatest challenge and accomplishment to date. Larry's a competitor and wanted the challenge, but the man loves basketball. It's in his blood and at the college level, he can better shape and mold players "the right way" which is exactly what he's doing here.

Turner wanted Larry, our former AD did not. He was fired shortly after the hire

Not quite accurate

Don't ever be afraid to buy the best, you'll always be happy with it.

Seriously think he was intrigued by us since we were so bad for so long. Very few chances to take a program from the ashes

Haven't figured out why Houston message boards think SMU got Larry Brown for under $1 million. . . Best of my recollection Larry's getting $1.8 to 2 million.

I really think it helped that he played at Moody during his ABA days. He was exposed to the city, the campus, and the gym, so he knew there was potential.

He also has mentioned Doc Hayes many times when he talks about SMU so I assume he also knew about us when we were good in the 50's. We have just enough basketball history to be noticed.

We didn't convince him to come, he convinced us. He wasn't our AD's first (or second) choice. We could have had him around the price you suggest, but as we got used by our 'preferred' candidates his price went up to somewhere in the 1.5-1.8 mil as others have said. It wasn't a widely praised hire and seemed to most to be a bit gimmicky. The silver lining at the time was Jankovich, our coach in waiting.

blackoutpony wrote:He called us. He basically begged us for the job.

He wanted to make this the crowning jewel on a coaching career that didn't need it and will most likely never be equaled.

If he could take SMU, a dog sh@t program that was a dumpster fire and make them like a Georgetown, as he's always said he wanted to, then it would be his greatest challenge and accomplishment to date. Larry's a competitor and wanted the challenge, but the man loves basketball. It's in his blood and at the college level, he can better shape and mold players "the right way" which is exactly what he's doing here.

If he takes us to the final four, he needs to be inducted into the Basketball HOF AGAIN!!

I think he has a really good shot at national coach of the year.

Cool info. So he's in the $1.5-2.0MM range himself. All-in, SMU may be paying around $3MM for coaches. Maybe not the top three in the AAC but solidly upper-tier and highly committed. UH is probably around $800K to $1MM total. I've seen that Dickey makes $400K.

we may have to give him a raise pending his performance review.

I heard Turner hired him to build the program up to where we're legit and then kill men's basketball...You know, because he hates athletics so much.

Word is that Orsini tried to stop this evil plan and that got him fired...at least that's what Mexmustang told me.