re: Dale Brown...you think he gets all this praise that skip has been getting when he passes?

No natties is the separator. Dale was good but other than Shaq there isn’t any lasting legacy to the basketball program of that era.

Bertman put LSU on the map as a permanent baseball blue blood. Any baseball person in the country perks up when LSU is mentioned. People laugh when the basketball team is mentioned.

Dale was also very vengeful & held a grudge for anything resembling an insult. As for his weirdness, I was having drinks with an atty friend & his girlfriend, an attractive young lady one nite & Dale came up. She said that they had crossed paths after a game & he ,out of the blue, told her that he could get tickets for the upcoming Kentucky Derby or any Final Four. Again, out of the blue, she said that Dale had somehow gotten a hold of her phone number & called her several days after their courtside meeting. He started reading the Bible to her She put her phone down & fell asleep. Hours later she woke up, grabbed her phone & he was still reading from the Bible. She just turned her phone off & went back to sleep.

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No natties is the separator. Dale was good but other than Shaq there isn’t any lasting legacy to the basketball program of that era.

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I mean, that's not true either despite no NC. Dale's 86 team was the first 11-seed to ever make it to the Final Four and is still tied for the lowest seed to ever make the Final Four some 40 years later (and gets mentioned pretty much every year during the Final Four). I believe he still has the 3rd most SEC wins of all-time and is top 5 for most SEC Championships ever. And the atmosphere Brown created at the PMAC and the crowds he got at the Superdome (still some of the largest basketball attendances of all time) is still remembered today.

Skip changed the landscape of college baseball with what he built at LSU and is arguably the greatest college baseball coach ever. He was also universally liked. He had it all.

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Dale has tarnished his legacy a bit with some of the things he’s said over the past decade or so.

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Being in bed with Temple Sr isn't really the best choice from a PR standpoint either.

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Dale and Skip aren’t really in the same universe

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Who is?

However, I really don't understand the hate for Brown. A lot of that comes from the younger generation that actually thinks Will Wade is more successful. The truth is Brown and Wade are not in the same universe.

LSU was never a national power in basketball over the long haul. Of course, they weren't a blue blood and not close. But what they were in the 80s was phenomenal. They made 2 final fours, and were cheated (Bobby Knight) out of making a third. 1981 was loaded. 1986 went through rough times during the season due to illness, but definitely worthy of the final 4 they reached when they got healthy. The 1987 team was one for the ages. Not a particularly talented team but Brown had them believing. Without the refs cowering down to Knight, LSU would have made 3 Final fours in 7 years. They were also considered a very dangerous team when in the tournament, and I think they made it like 11 straight years.

Will Wade has a very long way to go to achieve that status.

Most of the people bashing Dale never even saw his teams play. Yes, after the problems with the kid going to Kansas and NCAA crap, he went downhill fast. Make no mistake though, he brought great success to LSU Basketball. As I noted in another thread, his run in the 80s was legendary, even though they didn't win a title.

Skip won more. Dale while successful with 2 final fours and about a ten year NCAA tournament streak just didn't win as much.

Both had a lot in common. They both worked tremendously in promoting their programs and building programs. Skip made LSU a baseball school.

They both had substantial outside business interests while coaching. In the latter half of their careers they most likely made more money from outside business than their coaching salary. There are camps but both had outside businesses. Dale's were not as basketball related but he had them. Skip was printing money in the 90s with his camps and other businesses.

But, supposedly Dale made a lot more with his businesses and his attention began to wane. He really started to delegate way too much and put the duties into the hands of people who weren't as good as him.

It's not apples to apples. Skip was largely responsible for the modern day of college baseball. Dale Brown made a non-basketball school sort of relevant. No discredit to Dale, but it's not on the same level.

Except Dale had tremendous national success over a period of around 15 years, with the 80s being an incredible run. Charlie Mac was loved by most, but LSU wasn't really in the national spotlight. LSU was during Dale's run. There are people here who think Wade is a more successful coach than Brown, even though Wade has never even sat the bench in a sweet 16 game. It isn't even close.