Well-Traveled Brown Rumored to be Joining UW as Coaching Analyst

The veteran basketball leader, however, wouldn't confirm that report.

The University of Washington may resort to pulling out all creative and aggressive means to fix its stuck-in-neutral basketball program.

On top of building a lineup around a pair of Kentucky transfers, the Huskies could be on the verge of adding Larry Brown — possibly the most well-traveled if not one of the controversial coaches in basketball — to its coaching staff as an analyst.

Several news outlets have reported as much, though Brown, when reached by the Kansas City Star on Monday, denied anything was imminent.

Brown is 82 years old.

He's been the head coach for nine NBA teams, guiding the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 league championship.

He's been a college head coach for SMU, UCLA and Kansas, winning the 1988 NCAA title with the Jayhawks. He coached at Memphis last season as an assistant for Penny Hardaway before leaving midway through because of health reasons.

It's unclear what sort of relationship Husky coach Mike Hopkins, entering his seventh season Montlake and coming off a 16-16 season, might have with Brown. But the latter has been around so long, everybody knows him.

All signs point to Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown joining Mike Hopkins' staff at Washington, source told @stadium.

The 82-year-old Brown was most recently an assistant for Penny Hardaway at Memphis.

— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) June 19, 2023

While proving successful, Brown had NCAA penalties follow him at UCLA and Kansas, with the Bruins forced to vacate a 1980 NCAA runner-up finish because of program irregularities. Kansas similarly was heavily penalized after he had moved on from there.

Brown has coached against the Huskies five times, four at UCLA and once at Kansas, and went 1-4. His only loss to the UW came 72-70 at Pauley Pavilion on a last-second shot by the late Bob Fronk for a Marv Harshman-coached team that included Lorenzo Romar. 

The last time Brown encountered the Huskies was in the 1986-87 season, when his Danny Manning-led Kansas team beat them 82-68 in Lawrence. Andy Russo was the UW coach back then.

The good thing about Brown, should he come to Seattle, is he's way too old to get caught up in any more NCAA shenanigans and resulting sanctions.

---

Go to si.com/college/washington to read the latest Inside the Huskies stories — as soon as they’re published.

Not all stories are posted on the fan sites.

Find Inside the Huskies on Facebook by searching: Inside Huskies/FanNation at SI.com or https://www.facebook.com/dan.raley.12

Follow Dan Raley of Inside the Huskies on Twitter: @DanRaley1 or @UWFanNation or @DanRaley3

Have a question, direct message me on Facebook or Twitter.