Larry Brown hits the recruiting trail for SMU
ESPN's Andy Katz blogs about new SMU Men's Basketball Coach Larry Brown hitting the recruiting trail.
After spending the first full day of the July evaluation period on Thursday watching games in Philadelphia, SMU coach Larry Brown is off to Indianapolis this weekend, where he'll work with his assistant and coach-in-waiting Tim Jankovich to identify and contact recruits.
It's a far cry from the last time Brown was out recruiting when he was head coach at Kansas in the 1980s.
"They had one tournament then," said Brown. "They had the Nike camp at Princeton. And when you're at Kansas or UCLA or North Carolina, you're looking at only a few players. Now, I'm looking at 4,000."
OK, so maybe not that many.
But Brown is at SMU, and while the Mustangs are leaving Conference USA after this season to head to the Big East, SMU still isn't in the same pool that Brown used to swim in.
"I sat with Bill Self and John Calipari in Virginia [in April, one of the two weekends coaches were allowed to be out], and they weren't looking at the same guys I was looking at," Brown said. "Your taste is a little different."
The timing of Brown's foray back into college basketball is perfect considering a new rule that allows coaches access to their players while they're enrolled in summer school. Players and staff were kept separate in the offseason, but now they can practice two hours a week. This is a major development in keeping access for college coaches when players need to be monitored and coached the most. It also plays into Brown's greatest strength as a coach: on-court instruction.
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