Southern Methodist's' basketball program could be entering a new conference with a not-so-new coach.
Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown, 71, is interested in the vacant SMU coaching position, the Dallas Morning News reported on Tuesday.
Brown last coached in the NBA, with the Charlotte Bobcats in 2010, the 13th stop in his well-traveled career.
SMU athletic director Steve Orsini hasn't publicly expressed
interest in Brown. But Orsini has a reputation for hiring well-known
coaches, having brought June Jones to coach Mustangs football in 2008 and George O'Leary to Central Florida in 2003.
Brown will be 72 when SMU tips off its next season, and 73 when the Mustangs begin play in the bruising Big East. But he apparently still has too much basketball in his blood to stay away from the game.
He has spent the past two seasons as an unofficial adviser to Villanova coach Jay Wright and, lately, has been following the Kansas Jayhawks in the NCAA tournament.
Brown coached Kansas and Danny Manning to the 1988 NCAA title. Current Jayhawks coach Bill Self was an assistant on that Kansas staff.
Brown, who played point guard under Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina, also coached the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 NBA title. He's the only coach to win championships in both the NCAA and NBA.
But is he the right coach for SMU?
The Mustangs thought they had the right coach in another North Carolina product, but Matt Doherty failed to improve SMU's on-court product in six seasons.
SMU hasn't been to the NCAA tournament in almost 20 years but now has a practice facility that is the envy of a lot of NBA teams. SMU is on the verge of a multimillion-dollar renovation of Moody Coliseum.
What desperately needs upgrading is the program itself before it begins Big East play, and the thinking in Dallas must be that Brown could get the program into shape before handing it off to a younger protégé.
Brown is a proven teacher and builder with many connections in basketball.
It's those connections, particularly at the NBA level, that could give Brown a foothold in recruiting. Teenage prospects might not be be initially impressed about playing for a septuagenarian, but their eyes likely will light up when he talks about coaching Allen Iverson — and coaching for Michael Jordan.
Follow Keith Whitmire on Twitter: @Keith_Whitmire
