SMU gets best and worst of Larry Brown

The cheers began when he first became visible from a tunnel at Orleans Arena. They stood and clapped and chanted his name and held signs in his honor because, well, it's true everybody loves a winner.

No matter the cost.

When it comes to Southern Methodist athletics, history tells us no matter much of anything.

Larry Brown has returned to the basketball sideline, where few in the game's history have proven more skilled and capable at instructing players. He is a Hall of Fame coach at age 75, a master with a dry erase board. He has forgotten more hoops than most coaches will ever know.

You want to learn basketball? Sit and listen to Brown for an hour.

Listen to him for five minutes, for heaven's sake.

He's also having one more college program under his watch put on probation away from winning a free set of steak knives.

Brown's season didn't begin until Tuesday because he was forced to sit out SMU's first nine games, the result of yet more troubles with the NCAA, as common for the coach as Target extending its hours during the holiday season.

SMU beat Kent State 90-74 at the Continental Tire Las Vegas Classic, and for the first time all season, we saw a college team in Las Vegas that says it wants to play up-tempo and actually does. The Mustangs run for layups as well as most nationally. They are a load, a team with Sweet 16 or beyond ability that won't be allowed to chase such a dream.

The latest black mark on Brown's career: SMU was barred from this year's postseason and Brown suspended for 30 percent of its games for penalties that stem from an investigation into academic fraud.

The NCAA says Brown failed to report the violation for a month and initially lied when asked about it, leading to findings that he failed to promote an atmosphere of compliance.

"I don't mind being punished," Brown said. "I mind the kids being punished. My family has reminded me more than once there have been a lot tougher things I have had to go through. The kids are the ones I'm troubled by.

"But we have kids ready to put the NCAA behind them and perform at a high level. The support we got after the penalty was imposed helped the kids move on. We have to move on, and I think the kids have done a good job of that. I hope I handle it as well as they do. It felt good just being around the kids again."

UCLA went to the Final Four in 1980 under Brown, but that appearance was vacated because of the use of ineligible players. Kansas won the national title under him in 1988 and was then placed on three years probation for recruiting violations in a case the NCAA considered imposing the most extreme sanction of the so-called death penalty.

Speaking of SMU …

It leads the nation in major infractions cases with 10, including having to shut down its football program for two seasons in the late 1980s. It hadn't been good in basketball in forever — the Mustangs hadn't made the NCAAs before last season since 1993 — so it did in 2012 what the definition is of needing a quick fix.

It hired Brown, and now here it sits, watching a wonderful, athletic, tough team having equaled its best start in school history at 10-0 and with zero opportunity to have it featured in March.

UNLV found itself in a similar position in 1991-92, when it wasn't eligible for the postseason because of violations under then-coach Jerry Tarkanian. The Rebels would finish on a 23-game win streak and drop just two games all year, never publicly talking about the sanctions or using them as motivation during such a run. They just played.

"I've been reading in the paper about us maybe having an undefeated season, and it kind of made me sick to my stomach," Brown said. "I just told the kids our goal is to get better in practice, get better every game and represent our conference and school. We were penalized. We accepted it. We're moving on. We don't even talk about it. Anything Tark would do, I hope to be smart enough to do. He was a pretty incredible coach."

So is Brown, and SMU a pretty special team. It hasn't faced much on-court adversity at all, which will come at points during American Athletic Conference play. But this is a roster that, depending on seed and bracket, had the ability for a deep March run.

It's that good, and it's going nowhere this season under the only coach to have won an NCAA and NBA championship.

"I mean, it's Larry Brown," SMU junior guard Keith Frazier said. "He's a Hall of Fame coach. You have no choice but to go out there and play your butt off for him."

It's Larry Brown. You hire him and know what you're going to get.

You're going to win.

Sadly, no matter the cost.

Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. On Twitter: @edgraney