By GLENN GUILBEAU
Written for the LSWA
Former LSU men’s basketball coach John Brady wanted to be a coach back when he was at McComb High in the early 1970s.
But little did he know that the contacts he would make by chance would lead to the promised land of the 2006 Final Four, induction into the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame last fall, the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame last May and now, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches.
Brady is part of a 12-member Class of 2026 going into the LSHOF to culminate three days of festivities Thursday, June 25-Saturday, June 27, with seven events (six in Natchitoches, bowling in Alexandria). For participation information, visit LaSportsHall.com or call 318-238-4255.
For example, how would he have known that the Hattiesburg High guard who defended him in high school games and in junior high – Tim Floyd – would become a college head coach and one day hire him?
Or how he happened to catch on with Mississippi State basketball coach Kermit Davis as a graduate assistant and become friends with Kermit Davis Jr., who would later become his top assistant coach at LSU and a lifelong friend.
Or that one of his best friends in his early 20s would happen to be the son of Joe “String Music” Dean of SEC basketball television fame, a Converse shoes marketing executive who would one day become LSU’s athletic director — and would hire Brady as the Tigers’ basketball coach.
“I’m telling you, the dominoes were falling, and I didn’t even know what was going on,” Brady said. “I had no idea. It’s crazy now.”
There were also coaching mentors he would learn from, such as his McComb High coach, Bobby Nelson, and his college coach at Belhaven in Jackson – Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame coach Charlie Rugg.
And the head coaches he would learn more from as an assistant – like Kermit Davis as a grad assistant at Mississippi State (1976-77) and as an assistant under Bob Boyd at Mississippi State (1982-86), Richard Williams at Mississippi State (1986-90) and Floyd at UNO (1990-91).
From each, he learned similar old school fundamentals.
“Bobby Nelson is a great guy and had a big influence on me,” Brady said. “Charlie Rugg was at Belhaven and had a huge influence on me. I always thought about coaching when I was playing, because it was the only thing I really felt comfortable as far as what I was going to do.”
But he had to get the jobs first.
So, after graduating from Belhaven with a business degree in 1976, Brady enrolled at Mississippi State for a master’s degree in education to coach. He sent a resume and letter to coach Kermit Davis, who hired him. There he met Joe Dean Jr., who had just finished playing at State and was a graduate assistant.
“Joe Dean Jr. and I became best friends,” Brady said. “I used to go home with Joe on weekends to Baton Rouge and hang out at his house with his dad. It’s amazing how that all worked.”
Soon, Joe Dean Sr. was the star of Brady’s resume.
“It changed my life,” Brady said. “Joe Dean was the Converse shoe man. He knew everybody. My connection with Kermit and his dad changed my life, too. That all played a huge part in me coming to LSU.”
But first, Dean helped Brady land the coaching job at Crowley High in 1977. Brady won at Crowley and was named the Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association Class AAA coach of the year in 1981.
“He embraced a collegiate blueprint as though we were in college,” said James Moore, who played on Crowley’s 1980-81 team. “He put Crowley on the map. He promoted his teams all over Crowley at grocery stores, churches, businesses.”
Brady also attended many LSU basketball games as coach Dale Brown took the Tigers to an SEC title in 1979, the Elite Eight in 1980 and the Final Four in 1981.
Brown recruited Crowley, and so did that Hattiesburg guy, Tim Floyd, a Don Haskins assistant at Texas-El Paso who recruited Crowley forwards Jerome Batiste and Greg Lazard.
“I went over there for players and ended up finding one of the greatest hires I ever made,” Floyd said. “I suggested to coach Haskins we hire him.”
But Brady instead returned to Mississippi State to coach under Boyd, who was USC’s coach from 1967-79 and a nemesis of UCLA legend John Wooden. The two players came with Brady to State. Neither stayed, but Brady did and learned with fellow assistants Richard Williams and Larry Eustachy, who would become head coaches.
“Bob Boyd taught me how to communicate the game to players,” Brady said. “Bob was the best communicator I’ve ever been around in terms of details in his teaching. And he held players accountable.”
When Boyd retired in 1986, Williams replaced him and kept Brady. Brady later moved to UNO to coach under Floyd in 1990-91.
“Tim reiterated what I always believed in — defending without fouling, rebounding, taking care of the ball, getting a quality shot,” Brady said.
After one season with Floyd, Brady got the head coaching job at Samford in Birmingham, Alabama, over bigger names like Mark Gottfried and Matt Doherty. Why? Dean.
“Joe Dean helped me get every job I ever had,” Brady said.
Brady quickly turned around Samford, which was coming off six straight single-digit-win seasons. Brady went 17-10 in his first season and won back-to-back Trans America West titles in 1996 and ‘97.
“That place was asleep,” then-Birmingham News columnist Kevin Scarbinsky said. “I remember John counted the number of people at his first game. It was in the low hundreds. He vowed that he was going to fill the building, and eventually he did.”
Brady never took Samford to the NCAA Tournament, but he did become Cinderella on Dec. 2, 1996. Boyd was an assistant on LSU’s staff at the time and had warned Brown.
“You better be ready,” Boyd said. “That SOB could come in here and cut us up.”
And Samford won, 53-50.
Brown had announced before the season that the 1996-97 season – his 25th – would be his last. And Brady struck while the victory was still hot. He called Dean the next day.
“I want to be the next basketball coach at LSU,” he said.
“John, I love you like a son,” Dean said. “But I can’t hire you at LSU from Samford.”
Brady said to keep him in mind anyway.
At this time, the NCAA was investigating LSU over its recruitment of star Baton Rouge forward Lester Earl. And one-by-one, the top candidates removed themselves. It came down to Ole Miss coach Rob Evans or Brady.
“If Rob doesn’t take it, I’m sending the plane to pick you up,” Dean told Brady.
“I was pumped. I didn’t care if they were going on 10-year probation,” Brady said. “And I got the call.”
But Brady took over a program coming off four straight losing seasons, too.
“I talked to him the night before he went down there,” Scarbinsky said. “And he told me he could get LSU to the Final Four. He had such confidence.”
But not many players. He inherited seven, but three quit during his first team meeting.
“Any ideas?” Brady asked assistant coach and old friend Kermit Davis Jr.
“Yeah,” Davis said. “Let’s not have any more team meetings.”
Brady had losing seasons in 1997-98 and 1998-99. Then the NCAA sanctions hit and LSU lost six scholarships through 2002. Still Brady and assistants Butch Pierre and Davis signed one of the top players in the country in Shreveport forward Stromile Swift. As a sophomore in 1999-2000, he led LSU to the Sweet 16 with a 28-6 finish and first SEC title since 1991 at 12-4.
“I appreciate you coach,” Swift told Brady at a 25-year reunion of that team in Baton Rouge as both choked up. “I needed a coach like you. He was a tough coach, and he made us better.”
Once the sanctions stopped, LSU returned to NCAA Tournaments in 2003 and ’05 before a magical 2005-06 when the Tigers won another SEC title at 14-2 and reached the school’s first Final Four since 1986 and finished 27-9.
“I didn’t like John Brady at first,” Brown said just recently. “But I grew to admire and respect him as a coach and a man. He did a wonderful job with his Final Four team and really should’ve got to coach longer. I’m proud of him.”
Floyd felt the same way.
“I always respected his journey. He didn’t take any shortcuts,” he said. “His greatest strength was holding great players to a standard and making them accountable.”
He got that from Boyd.
“He was not afraid to be direct with his players. He coached with his gut. And accountability was everything to him,” Floyd said.
The magic quickly ended, though, as Brady fell to 17-15 and 5-11 in the SEC in 2006-07. He was fired midway through 2007-08 at 8-13 and 1-6 in the SEC. Never mind that his best player – forward Tasmin Mitchell – was lost for virtually all of the season with a leg injury. Center Chris Johnson also missed seven games with a broken hand.
“And 18 months before he was at the Final Four? You’ve got to be kidding me,” Floyd said, still angry 18 years later. “His best player was out. I didn’t agree with the firing at all.”
Brady quickly got another job at Arkansas State for the next season and won two Sun Belt Conference West titles before retiring in 2016.
He received a third SEC championship ring from LSU a year after he left in 2009. Trent Johnson, the coach who replaced him at LSU, thought it only fair as Johnson won the SEC in his first season with Mitchell, Johnson and other top players left by Brady, such as guard Marcus Thornton and Temple, playing major roles.
“Tasmin and Garrett might have asked him to do that, but he did it,” Brady said. “And I really appreciated it.”
Brady would get one more SEC title ring when coach Will Wade won the league in 2019 with Brady as the LSU Radio Network game analyst, where he remains as Wade returns.
“So, I got four and only won two,” he laughed. “I didn’t leave LSU all mad. And coming back to do radio helped my legacy by people seeing me in a different light. It’s helped me go to this nice place with LSU people now, which I’m blown away by. I’m just so humbled by it and these Halls of Fame. I’m a lucky guy.”
