Hall of Fame Basketball coach Larry Brown won’t be fired from SMU even after the NCAA came down hard on the SMU program, sticking it with multiple sanctions and forbidding SMU to participate in next year’s NCAA tournament. Among the things that happened under Brown’s watch, but that Brown allegedly had no knowledge of, was an SMU administrator over-helping with high school All-American Keith Frazier’s academic work so the player would be eligible. Even North Carolina (Brown’s alma mater, btw) knows you can’t do that.
The NCAA suspended Brown for a third of the SMU season. But the university won’t fire him. SMU president Gerald Turner explained to USA Today two reasons why Brown’s job is safe. Reason one: Brown allegedly didn’t know Frazier was getting his work done for him. Reason two: the one time Larry Brown did lie to the NCAA, he quickly met with his lawyers and corrected the misinformation. Brown was “caught off guard,” according to Turner. “He immediately called timeout and talked to his attorney and went back in and apologized for not being truthful immediately.”
