re: Here's to Dale Brown!

Dale was very similar to Les Miles (minus the clean program). Dale was eccentric and he relied on his assistants like Ron Abernanthy and Craig Carse (the "Brain Trust") to get his x's and o's end of it clear. Many times, CBS would cut out commercials and instead go to the dale Brown-led huddle. More often than not, it was Brown just stammering and being positive. He'd draw up a play and Abernanthy would cut in and help him redraw it. Most of the time, Dale would look at stats and tell his players which opponents to foul:

"If we wanna foul, we want #00 (David Butler) or #12 (Anderson Hunt)" - UNLV, 1989.

"He'll miss! He'll miss!" - Referring to Charles Smith of Georgetown in '89 game.

Dale was Norman Vincent Peale of college basketball. That is why John Wooden admired him. He was always half-full. I suppose a lot of that had to be attributed to all of those 20 win seasons and the incredible final 4 run of '86...almost outdone by an outstanding elite 8 run in '87. Had it not been for now defunct home court advantage in men's NCAA 1st-2nd rounds, LSU '86 might have been bounced easily in round one. The PMAC was HUGE for the TIgers vs. Purdue and Memphis.

We'll never see another coach like him. LSU is night and day in every single process now. We can still be good, but we recruit from mainly our backyard - a good things, as seen in '06, but eventually the talent in BR metro area isn't going to match the talent of the tri-state NY, CT, and NJ areas...nor the national recruiting powers like Duke, UCLA, and Georgetown. Dale Brown once kept up with the Joneses by getting those kind of recruits.

Secondly, the SEC - especially the west - is a very weak conference compared to other majors. Once upon a time, in a ten team league, every SEC team had 1 or more NCAA players and everyone was considered capable on any night. Take 1989, for instance and the talent across the board...

LSU - Chris Jackson, Ricky Blanton
Kentucky - Chris Mills, Darren Feldhaus
Florida - Dwayne Schintzius, Dwayne Davis, Livingston Chatman
Georgia - Literial Green, Alec Kessler
Vandy - Barry Booker, Barry Goheen, Frank Cornett
Auburn - Wesley Person, Matt Geiger
Tennessee - Dyron Nix, Mark Griffith
Miss State - Cemeron Burns, Greg Hill
Ole Miss - Gerald Glass, Tim Jumper
Alabama - Robert Horry, Melvin Cheatum


PARITY

[quote]I can't think of the other coach's name who was with him in 86, he COACHED that team. the older guy who was with the lakers for so long. /quote]


That would be the legendary Tex Winter you are speaking of, the man considered the father of the triangle offense. But he was not with the Tigers in '86. He was a Brown assistant for 2 years - the 83-84 and 84-85 seasons.

but lets not act like LSU or the SEC west has been this down forever. In the early 2000s the SEC in general was considered to be just as good as anyone.
The PMAC was still fun as little as a few years ago. Its just league and LSU are very down right now. It won't be that way forever.

Some people are acting like it's been 20 years since the SEC or LSU has been fun.

quote:

---

redstick13 = John Brady

---

I was thinking "Bobby Knight"

Eh. It's still Pete's Palace, not Browns Building.
Only way the bbteam had to go was up.
Cheated, sure he did. But had help with aid from the ad. On several occasions got recruits, and their coach too. Everybody else was too.
1981 team, best ever, shoulda won a national championship.

quote:

---

DAmn you Keith Smart!!!!!!

---

I hear ya, but he daggered Syracuse and not us - his home team.

It was either Rick Calloway (who played at IU and KU for a combined 17 years it seemed) or Daryl Jones who had that putback.

Damn you Fess Irvin ftw.

quote:

---

I loved going to the games. My parents or grandfather had us at most of the games. I really don't have any problems with him personally. He's not a bad guy, and I'm sure he had a lot of good intentions, but he knew what was going on and he continued to thumb his nose at the "gestapo." I just think that is a VERY big part of his legacy whether some people like to admit it or not.

I should tone it down, but I am telling the truth. That or I am just a Dale Brown hater.

---

I can totally respect that. He could be a polarizing figure, for sure. His dislike for the NCAA seemed to come from the fact that he stuck up for his and every other college athlete and their lack of rights to earn money, even though they were making millions for their universities in trade for the opportunity to earn a college degree. The fact that the NCAA tried to crush him and only came up with the LE allegations speaks volumes. LE, as we all know, admitted to lying and frame the program by doing so.

I also have tales I can tell involving basketball, football and baseball players from back in the day, but all that's water not only under the bridge but lying at the bottom of the Gulf. It's best that it all stays there.

I think we're both on the same side here, pal.