Article: Hiring Larry Brown was a good gamble for SMU

[Rebel10]

http://portlandtribune.com/pt/12-sports ... le-for-smu

[PK]

Informative article. Being a Porland paper, June gets a fair amount of mention. June is a hard guy to figure, but I appreciate even the small part he played in getting Larry Brown here. Now if he would just take a cue from the way Larry coaches and recruits.

[Pony ^]

great article. Lots of info I didn't know

[PonyFan32]

great article. Lots of info I didn't know

Like the fact that we had seven transfers this year?

[max the wonder dog]

Great story, except for the part about Jon Koncak being the best player in SMU history.

[Pony ^]

great article. Lots of info I didn't know

Like the fact that we had seven transfers this year?

haha that too. Didn't know a lot about the behind the scenes hiring process of Jank, etc

[PonyFan32]

great article. Lots of info I didn't know

Like the fact that we had seven transfers this year?

haha that too. Didn't know a lot about the behind the scenes hiring process of Jank, etc

I agree. Article was good.

[PonyFan32]

Of course, the basic premise of the article is an observation on the level of Captain Obvious.

I think the moment we knew it was a good gamble was the moment Keith Frazier committed to SMU. That didn't guarantee success, but it told us that this staff wasn't playing around and was going to at least produce as much as your average staff even if they didnt take us to Top 25 (which they later did). That was the first sign of "hmm good things could happen here under Larry Brown". To me, that's when it became a good gamble.

Certainly, the most important early moves besides staff hires happened to be the transfers coming in, but the general basketball fandom of SMU had no idea they would be as good as they have been until this fall.

Love the publicity though. Keep it coming.

[leopold]

It's obvious for us, but for someone in Portland it's news. It's all relative.

Congrats to coach Brown. Hope he takes it.

[PonyKai]

Beating a dead horse, but still cannot believe that Orsini's incompetence at running a hoops coaching search led to a deeply disappointed Larry Brown. Can't make this up.

[PonyFan32]

It's obvious for us, but for someone in Portland it's news. It's all relative.

Congrats to coach Brown. Hope he takes it.

Fair point. That occurred to me well after I posted.

[mustangxc]

It was obvious this was a great hire the moment Jerrance Howard and Ulric Maligi were announced as assistants. We immediately landed Josiah Turner as a transfer from Arizona along with Crandall Head from Illinois, Nic Moore from Illinois State and Markus Kennedy from Villanova. While Josiah Turner did not even play for us, he was rated as 11th in the country by rivals coming out of high school. That as much as anything told me we were serious about being good, even if it meant becoming the place malcontents come to repair their careers. Frazier was just the icing on the cake after having landed Yanick Moreira and some solid recruits from the Illinois area. Those are the types of unheralded recruits we need the football team to sign! If June Jones had that type of talent, people would be singing his praise as much if not more than Larry Brown given this is a football crazy state.

[Terry Webster]

I had forgotten all about Turner. Anyone know what he is up to now? Did he ever play anywhere?

[SMU 86]

I had forgotten all about Turner. Anyone know what he is up to now? Did he ever play anywhere?

Went to play pro ball in Europe.

[Pony ^]

I had forgotten all about Turner. Anyone know what he is up to now? Did he ever play anywhere?

Went to play pro ball in Europe.

huge mistake is what it was. Didn't sound like the smartest kid, probably would have been better off getting free education. What's the likelihood of someone going to Europe and coming back to play in the NBA? <1%?