On Tuesday, Larry Brown told Mike Missanelli of 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia he'd interview for the Penn State coaching job if asked. Most dismissed the comments as Brown being diplomatic and didn't make much of them, but as David Jones of the Harrisburg Patriot-News reports, Brown was serious.
According to Jones, a call was set up between Brown and athletic director Tim Curley yesterday and the two talked about the vacancy. Jones was "intrigued" to hear of the news, but...
I was even more intrigued to learn that Curley told Brown without much fanfare that PSU was set on going in a different direction. Why? Because Brown didn't have any recent college experience.
Stunned? What could stun me or anyone else anymore about the dysfunctional entity that is PSU hoops?
“I'd be interested [in Penn State],” said Brown on Friday. “But I don't really feel like there's much interest [from Curley] in me.”
The Hall of Fame coach has a career record of 177-61 at the college level. He won an NCAA Championship with Kansas in 1988 and made the NCAA tournament in all of his seven college seasons. Brown also has three Final Four appearances to his credit, one with UCLA (vacated) and two with Kansas.
Unfortunately for Brown, Curley seems more interested in the recent college coaching experience of the recently fired Jim Boylen and soon-to-be third-year Boston head coach Patrick Chambers, who according to some rumblings, could be getting an interview with Penn State soon.
Expect these comments to spark some outrage in the fan base. It's not every day one of the best basketball coaches to ever walk this planet expresses interest in coaching a program that just watched it's head coach walk for a pay cut at a service academy, and it's certainly not every day he's not even granted an interview.
The silver lining, though, is that Brown's interest should offer at least a little boost to the job's profile. The perception of the job is not good at all right now, and with already slim pickings at this late stage in the game, Penn State could be in real trouble. Perhaps Brown's interest will open up some eyes and lure some potential candidates to seek the job that might have otherwise avoided it.
UPDATE: Of course, as psuwxman points out in the comments...
What coach is going to read what happened with Brown and NOT see the dysfunction here??? Yeesh.
Good question.