They Have Rooms for Brown at the Top

Larry Brown and his band of little renown outplayed and outthought the Oklahoma Sooners Monday night to win The Big One, 83-79.

It was a game that will have major social ramifications, such as:

--Oklahoma Coach Billy Tubbs, Jack Nicholson’s evil twin, and his run-amok renegades did not win. That means that college basketball has not been overthrown by the speedsters. First Loyola Marymount fell, now Oklahoma. The purists win out. You can drive 55 and stay alive.

--College basketball has officially entered a new age of excitement. The college game, aided by the shot clock, three-point line and innovative coaching of guys like Tubbs and Paul Westhead, may have had its greatest hour Monday night.

--Larry Brown’s stock has soared, split and exploded in a mushroom cloud. You think UCLA still wants the guy? Is Westwood trendy?

Of course, Larry’s price may have gone up, theoretically assuming he is even remotely interested in the Bruin job. The Bruins will bump up the salary offer, assuming there is an offer, and throw in the L.A. hilltop fortress of Kansas alum Wilt Chamberlain.

Dig this, UCLA fans: When Larry had an opportunity in the postgame press conference to deny any interest in the Bruin job, he did not just say no. He did what politicians might call a tap dance.

“What about your future?” a newsman asked Brown.

Larry, disgust dripping from his voice at this breach of etiquette, replied, “I don’t know how to say I’m part of a national championship and I’m gonna enjoy it with these guys. That’s (line of questioning) not fair.”

Sure it is. Brown could end speculation with one definitive statement. Two words: I’m staying. But no.

This is certain: Larry is hotter property than a two-dollar Rolex. Other than the Laker job, Larry can just about pick his spot.

The man vaulted into the genius class of coaching Monday night. He played the game like a violin, first like Cajun fiddler Doug Kershaw and then like classicist Itzak Perlman. Speed and then grace.

He took a team that lost key players all year long, and coached them into the Final Four, and then into the stratosphere.

“I didn’t think he was going to make it through the year, I really didn’t,” said Kristy Brown, Larry’s daughter. “I’ve never seen him so depressed. It was a strain.”

Yet he brought his team to the big game loose and well-prepared. Monday night he borrowed old-time baseball manager Chuck Dressen’s game plan: “Just stay close and I’ll think of something.”

The Jayhawks were so loose before the game that junior guard Milt Newton devoted considerable time to working on the all-important 30-foot jump shot from out of bounds.

The Jayhawks were so loose they thought they were Sooners. They actually ran with Oklahoma in the first half.

“Coach was a little upset we went down and shot so quickly,” said Kansas sub Scooter Barry. “He wanted us to use up the clock more. We didn’t want the game to turn into a rat race.”

Brown was smart enough to realize that even though his kids ran with the Oklahoma kids the first half, it would not be a wise course to continue.

“We were all concerned that we couldn’t slow ourselves down,” Brown said. “They wouldn’t listen to me. It’s hard.”

Finally Brown’s message sunk in halfway through the second half. The Jayhawks slowed it waaaay down. Brown kept telling his players, “Just get ‘em (Sooners) to the last five minutes. They’ve never been there before.”

Of course, the Sooners have been there before.

“I lied,” Brown said.

Larry will be the first guy to tell you that if you want to become a genius, you should go out and find yourself a Danny Manning, who can get you that 31 points and 18 rebounds in the big game, and that it doesn’t hurt to pick up a Milt Newton, who will shoot your basic 6 for 6 and turn the ball over not once.

But there was no mistaking the Larry Brown stamp on this team and this game, and those mouths you hear watering are those of UCLA boosters, players and administrators. Ain’t too proud to beg.

In the chaos after the final gun, as Kansas players were putting on their T-shirts that read ‘The ‘Hawks spread their wings as the fat lady sings,” Newton ran past Brown and said excitedly, “Coach, we going to the White House?”

Like Larry has the keys or something. Who knows, maybe the Democrats could use a last-minute dark-horse nominee, someone who can handle pressure and looks good in a suit.

That’s the big question now, where is Larry Brown going?

The White House?

Wilt’s house?

Edwin Pauley’s house/pavilion?

Disneyland?

Stay tuned.