Coaching Comparison: John Brady

by Seth C on Mar 22, 2008 9:32 AM CDT in Basketball

This is a series of comparisons between recent coaching candidates to Texas Tech's Pat Knight. We're taking a look at whether or not Pat Knight was the right man for the job at Texas Tech.

Coach	John Brady
Age	53
Seasons	16
Record	286-221
Winning Percentage	56.4%
NCAA Tournaments	4
Final Fours	1
Conference Tournament Titles	0
New Team	Arkansas State
Details	Brady has been at LSU since the 1997-1998 season. He started slow, not even breaking .500 his first two seasons, but in the 1999-2000 season he won 28 games for the Tigers. After that Brady leveled off a bit, only winning 13 games in 2000-2001, but bounced back in subsequent years with 19, 21, 18, and 20 win seasons. In 2005-2006 Brady led his team to a 27 win season and a Final Four appearance, but came back down to earth with 17 wins in 2006-2007 and only 12 wins this year.
Pros	How about leading a LSU team to a Final Four? Pretty impressive. Not only that, but he's won a decent share of games for LSU and made them relevant for a short period of time.
Cons	Has had two less than stellar seasons after having some success. Not sure if it was recruiting or something else, but I wouldn't think that a valid excuse in the SEC is "lack of talent" and LSU is no exception. If anything, this may point to the fact that Brady is middle of the road coach, who can have a little success, but not sustained success. Or at least success that doesn't translate to a top tier program at LSU. If I'm LSU that's a problem, which is why he lost his job at LSU and is now coaching at Arkansas State.
Verdict	I'd still take Pat Knight here. He has more upside than Brady, at least right now, although Brady obviously has more wins and skins on the wall than PK. I think that Brady is what he is, nothing special, just solid and I'm hoping that PK is more than that. I'll take the unknown with PK over Brady.