While many fans were comfortable or even happy with LSU’s dismissal of former men’s basketball coach John Brady this past week, SEC coaches are adamantly supporting the Tigers’ former coach.
“[Alabama coach] Mark Gottfried called me and said, ‘This might be a good profession, but it’s a terrible business we’re in,'” Brady said Friday.
Brady also said multiple other SEC coaches “reached out” to him when his firing became public.
One coach Brady mentioned, Florida’s Billy Donovan, directed his opening remarks in Monday’s SEC coaches’ teleconference toward the Brady situation.
“[Brady] and I have had a terrific relationship for a number of years, both being in the league together,” Donovan said. “I hope he’s happy. I hope he’s OK.”
Donovan, the longest-tenured Conference coach, may be one of the most well-respected coaches in the conference and the country after winning the past two national championships. Before the Gators in 2006 and 2007, Duke was the most recent team to capture back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992.
South Carolina coach Dave Odom, who led the Gamecocks to consecutive NIT titles in 2005 and 2006, may have had higher praise Monday for Brady than any other SEC coach.
“I don’t know anything about the situation at LSU, so it would be unfair for me to comment on that,” Odom said. “But I know from a coaching standpoint and from a personal standpoint, John Brady is one of my favorite people, and he’s also one of the best coaches.”
Odom went on to remind people that LSU’s season could have gone much differently if forwards Glen Davis and Tyrus Thomas had not darted for the NBA and forward Tasmin Mitchell was not injured in the team’s third game of the season.
“Had those things not happened, instead of being at the bottom of the Western Division, [Brady] would be at or near the top of all twelve teams,” Odom said. “Nobody would have better talent and nobody would coach them better than he would.”
The most public commentary on the situation from any coach has come from Tennessee’s Bruce Pearl.
While Pearl is one of the newer coaching faces in the SEC, his Volunteers lead the conference this season and have finished in the top two in the SEC every year since he left the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 2005.
“I’d like to see more athletic directors and presidents say this is embarrassing,” Pearl said after Saturday’s game at the PMAC. “Did he get caught cheating [in] recruiting? What law did he break? No. And here’s the scary thing: We’re now able to say publicly that he didn’t win enough games.”
On Monday, Pearl told ESPN’s Bob Ley it is scary that a school can say not enough games were won when a coach’s resume resembles Brady’s.
“Being a young coach at the high-major level, I want to stay in this for a while, and it is alarming,” Pearl said. “I mean, John Brady has won almost 60 percent of his games … He got to the Final Four. Twenty-two months later, he’s fired because he didn’t win enough games.”
Pearl said Brady’s abrupt firing is “scary,” and he was willing to spread the blame to both the schools and the coaches.
“[Coaches are] getting paid too much, and there’s not enough job security,” Pearl said. “Coaches aren’t honoring their contracts like they should, and universities are too quick to pull the trigger.”
Pearl said the hastiness to make changes does not exist solely in college basketball.
“It’s true in sport,” Pearl said. “I mean, wasn’t Tom Coughlin going to get fired with the New York Giants, and weren’t they saying Eli Manning wasn’t a good enough quarterback to win big, and weren’t they wrong? In this case, I think it’s too quick to judge. John Brady’s done a fine job at LSU.”
—-Contact Jerit Roser at [email protected]