Salary Not Issue For Larry Brown, New Names In The Mix

Call 814-865-1086 first thing Tuesday morning. Express your feelings about turning down one of the ten best coaches in the history of the sport in favor of these yahoos.

Penn State material is not one of them. Curley didn’t want the only coach in history to cause a reigning champion to be banned from posteason play the following? Shocking.

Maybe Ed could have had better results if the school would have been committed to basketball. Maybe.

It is debateable about Larry Brown because of past NCAA violations. But to at least not interview him or consider him after he expresses interest when you look at his history, reputation, and record shows that Penn State doesn’t give a shit about basketball.

Maybe we shouldn’t care either.

But I’ll say this much: The money grabbers that are Spanier and Curley had better be damn careful. If they handle the transition from Joe to the next coach the way they’ve handled the basketball program, that 110,000 seat stadium will have about 47,000 people in it. Unless they start giving tickets away. And since they love money so much, if that football team sucks, that university will be poorer than a third world country.

what it will be like whenever Joe goes….Consider the coach from East Podunck Jr. College because he is a good guy vs. Tom Bradley vs. Shorty Miller’s great grandson vs. a name coach like “Greg Gatusso” vs. the guy who comes cheap and like Guido’s music choices vs. JayPa vs. my High School coach, etc. and so on….if you think this is a real circus, just wait until it’s reality vs. perception.

I do think Curley will look at his other options and realize how stupid it would be to let this opportunity pass without doing anything, but this would not be very confidence inspiring were I a fan. Sorry. Tee-hee.

I believe that coaches will fit the culture. Here is a guy with some smirches on his record. I really believe that his salvation would be to work in a system that dictates control. Think about it…you have a job and are great at what you do. It is a loose system and the culture has always had some slack in it, so unfortunately you run it loose, and let a few things slide. Eventually you are caught and released. Now what? No one wants you, although you have more than abundant skills. Wouldn’t you want a shot to redeem yourself? To know that you can do what you do the right way? I really believe that if Coach Sweater Vest were in the Penn State system, he would not have allowed Tattoogate to happen. Think about yourself, if you know the expectations; are you more willing to rise to the occasion? Do you believe that people want to do the right thing?

BU.

Also, I think it’s important to note that the concept of hiring Larry Brown is going to loom large over whomever they do end up hiring. There will be inevitable comparisons to Brown and if/when the new coach struggles, there will be complaints that they could have gone and gotten the giant name instead.

This is important because a lot of folks are saying “how can you not at least interview Brown, rather than dismiss him after a brief phone call?” Well, if you no for sure that you aren’t going to hire Brown – and I feel certain that Curley and company had zero interest in bringing him in due to his checkered past while a college coach – why would you create the circus of interviewing him? Any positive PR you get from that would be completely overshadowed by all the negative PR for not hiring Brown. I think understandably that Curley and PSU wanted to “nip in the bud” any Brown talk before it even started because they didn’t want to experience the downside. I think that’s why they aren’t pubicly commenting on the situation now either – why build up the situation any more by acknowledging it. I think they simply don’t want any associating of Larry Brown’s name with the PSU job.

The atheletic department has shown absolutely nothing in the way of support for the baksetball program. Can anybody here imagine telling Joe that the university is taking over Holuba Hall for a clinic from August – January? No, it wouldn’t happen. Cael Sanderson has been here for only 2 seasons, and can you imagine anybody telling HIM to vacate the wrestling facilities? No. But basketball has to pack up all their equipment like a homeless bunch of gypsies to practice in the IM Building, not because of a scheduling conflict with another varsity sport, but for a damn Bon Jovi concert? That shows there is absolutely, positively no respect for the basketball program.

You can look at this as a which came first, the chicken or the egg type of question: Did DeChellis’ record suck because he got absolutely no backing, or did he get no backing because of his record? Considering two years ago we won the NIT, and this year we were in the finals of the Big Ten tournament for the first time, and lost in the first round of the real tournament on a last second shot to a basketball school in Temple, and I’ll place the blame on Curley’s lap.

Also, as it pertains to Larry Brown, what about a little reverse psychology. If a coach like Larry Brown is interested in the job and is a serious candidate, doesn’t that raise the profile and prestige of the position?