John Brady
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John Brady John Brady’s tenure of nearly 11 seasons as the LSU basketball coach can be looked at in many different ways. But his tenure is an important part of the 100-year history of the program as he was able to win division and league champions, develop players that captured top league honors on a regular basis and when right, take his team to post-season play and in 2006, joined Harry Rabenhorst and Dale Brown as LSU coaches to take teams to the NCAA Final Four. Brady was able to take the LSU program and remake it a couple of times during his tenure to go to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2000 and to the pinnacle of college basketball in 2006, the school’s first NCAA Final Four in 20 years. Along the way he won the school’s first ever division titles and won the first outright SEC title in 21 years. Coach Brady arrived following in the unenviable position of taking over the program after Coach Dale Brown’s 25 years but Brady came with a plan and while his early teams were undermanned, undersized and underdogs, the team played hard and gave the best of teams problems. But it was the little things that kept them from getting many wins. Brady’s teams would win two SEC titles, three division crowns and at one point had six consecutive winning seasons, the fourth longest streak of consecutive years with a positive overall record in the program’s first 100 years.
In 2000, the Tigers advanced to the Sweet 16 as part of a 28-win season, the second most wins in school history. In 2005, LSU captured the Western Division title and came back the next year for a special season Tiger fans will always remember. LSU won 14-of-16 conference games in 2006 to win the title. The Tigers would have success in the NCAA Tournament, defeating No. 1 Duke and No. 9 Texas to win the regional title mainly with a lineup homegrown in the city and the state of Louisiana. The win over Duke marked the second time that Brady’s Tigers defeated a standing No. 1 team as the Tigers also defeated No. 1 Arizona, 66-65, in December 2002 at the Maravich Center, only the second time No. 1 had gone down in the building. A major part of the success of the LSU program at that time was player development. John Brady coached the SEC Player of the Year three times (Stromile Swift in 2000, Brandon Bass in 2005 and Glen Davis in 2006). He had the SEC Freshman of the Year four times (Torris Bright in 2000, Brandon Bass in 2004, Glen Davis in 2005, Tyrus Thomas in 2006). Brady, who ended his career as the third winningest and the third longest tenured coach in Tiger history, came to LSU after five years at Samford as head coach. Prior to that he has served successful stints at Mississippi State and UNO as an assitant coach. He is presently the head coach at Arkansas State.
2009-2010 LSU men’s Basketball Media Guide
TIGERS COACHES REVIEW PREVIEW RECORDS HISTORY LSU
LSU Head Basketball Coach 1979-2008 11 years Record 192-139 2006 NCAA Final Four 2000, 2005, 2006 SEC Western Division Champions 2000, 2006 SEC Champions 2000, 2006 SEC Coach of the Year
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