KU Basketball: Ranking Jayhawks Eight Head Coaches All-Time
By Joel Wagler
Former Kansas Jayhawks head coach Larry Brown – Credit: Jamie Rhodes-USA TODAY Sports
KU Basketball Head Coach Rankings Number Four: Larry Brown
Ranking Larry Brown ahead of Owens wasn’t cut and dried, but it ultimately came down to how much Brown accomplished in such little time at Kansas. All that success came at a price, though.
Brown coached just five seasons, the shortest tenure of any of the coaches, but he won 135 games and lost just 44. He won at least 22 games in each of his seasons and in 1988, he was at the helm when the Kansas Jayhawks won the NCAA National Championships.
In his short time at Kansas, he won that championship, appeared in two Final Fours, pocketed a conference championship, and two conference tournament championships. He has won one National Coach of the Year award.
Including his five years at Kansas, Brown has coached only nine full seasons at the college level at three schools – Kansas, UCLA, and SMU. He’s been to three Final Fours and counting the early part of the 2015-2016 season, Brown has a collegiate record of 252-95.
If you consider his 1,327 wins in the NBA and ABA…combined with his 252 victories at the college level, Brown has to one of the best basketball coaches of all-time.
If you consider his 1,327 wins in the NBA and ABA, including a championship in 2003-2004 with Detroit, combined with his 252 victories at the college level, Brown has to one of the best basketball coaches of all-time.
His coaching career stretches back to 1972, and he has led 11 pro teams and three colleges, yet his tenure at Kansas was his second longest (he coached six years at Philadelphia in the NBA).
His time at Kansas ended on a sour note. After Brown and the Jayhawks won the championship in 1988 behind Danny Manning and the Miracles, Brown left for the NBA, and Kansas was put on NCAA probation for violations under Brown’s regime.
The KU basketball team, while under probation earned during Brown reign, was not able to play in the NCAA tournament in 1989, the only year they missed the tourney since 1983, Owens’ last season.
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