Coaching Hire Reviews

[Alaric]

http://tinyurl.com/6ootfvl

SMU
Hired: Larry Brown
Replaced: Matt Doherty
Southern Methodist's big moves this offseason present the single most fascinating scenario of not just the coaching carousel, but arguably the entire national college hoops landscape. Consider the forces at work: A long-bereft program soon making a move to the Big East hires a legendary coach with a history of A) leaving NBA teams and college programs quickly and B) leaving said college teams in NCAA hot water.

To hedge against the likely possibility Brown soon becomes bored, SMU hired Illinois State coach Tim Jankovich as a coach-in-waiting and paid him more than twice as much (roughly $800,000 a year) as the country's highest-paid assistants. The Mustangs added noted recruiters Jerrance Howard (Illinois) and Ulric Maligi (Houston), and they're pumping money into new facilities in the hopes of boosting the program's recruiting bona fides. And all this came after SMU tried (and got closer to succeeding than most people think) to poach one of the hottest names in college coaching in Marquette coach Buzz Williams.

It's like SMU woke up one day, realized it was about to join the Big East, and said, "We've got to get this basketball thing figured out, like, now." You can't fault the effort. If your goal is to become "relevant" overnight -- to say nothing of "competitive" -- hiring Larry Brown and a batch of respected assistants and recruiters is an awfully good way to get there. Is this a recipe for long-term success? I doubt it. But right now, SMU is more worried about … well, right now.

[gostangs]

paying up for talent usually IS a recipe for success.

[Mustangsabu]

I want two years out of Brown, and then I think we can take it from there with Jankovich.


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[Treadway21]

We (and SO) are sure reaping large rewards on the publicity front from this hire. No matter what happens, I think it will certainly shows our commitment to being a player in college basketball again, and has already hugely improved our image going forward.