Another Upset: Brown to Remain at Kansas : Lawrence to L.A., Back to Lawrence

Larry Brown shocked Kansas and UCLA with the ultimate change of heart Friday, rejecting an offer to return as the Bruins’ basketball coach and staying with the national champion Jayhawks.

“Although I visited UCLA last night, I came back, and after thinking about it, I’ve decided to stay at the University of Kansas,” said Brown, reading a one-paragraph statement, then leaving without taking questions.

It was a stunning turnaround even for Brown, basketball’s most famous vagabond, who left previous jobs with the Carolina Cougars and the Denver Nuggets of the old American Basketball Assn., the NBA Nuggets and New Jersey Nets and, after just two seasons, UCLA.

This time, according to the scenario sketched by UCLA and Kansas officials, Brown went from Kansas to UCLA back to Kansas in less than 24 hours.

“When we left our staff meeting at noon, we were all quite sure we’d lost our coach,” said Floyd Temple, Kansas’ assistant athletic director, who had told the Associated Press shortly before Brown’s announcement that “he’s gone. It’s definite.”

“I don’t want to mention any names, but we were told it was a lost cause,” Temple said.

In fact, Temple said that even as Brown sat at a table in Allen Fieldhouse to reveal his decision to about 200 students and fans and reporters, “We all thought we were going to lose our basketball coach. We thought it was all over.”

When Brown said he was staying, Temple and assistant athletic directors Doug Vance and Gary Hunter “looked at each other in amazement,” Temple said. “It was an absolute shock. It was tremendous shock to all of us.”

More than 200 students and boosters burst into cheers and chanted, “Larry, Larry,” so loud that Brown had to pause and gesture for quiet so he could read his statement.

The Kansas campus is still euphoric following the NCAA championship Brown’s unranked team won Monday night with an 83-79 upset of Oklahoma.

“I apologize at this time for these things to be coming out,” Brown said. “I think it’s a time everybody ought to be celebrating the accomplishments of our team. Right now I’m just going to meet with our team and leave it at that.”

With that, he left.

Kansas Athletic Director Bob Frederick said he made no contract adjustments to induce Brown to stay. He has four years remaining on a contract, which is supplemented with a basketball camp, shoe contract and television show and is said to be worth about $400,000 a year.

“He made his decision during a series of phone calls this afternoon,” Frederick said. Asked with whom Brown had spoken, Frederick said, “I didn’t ask. Once he told me he was going to stay, I really didn’t care.”

Frederick admitted he was “very pessimistic” earlier in the day.

“We had communicated to Larry before he went to UCLA that we wanted to be able to be in a position (to retain him),” Frederick said. “But I don’t think that was important to Larry. Larry certainly didn’t want to be in a position where this was some kind of bargaining deal. He made the decision on the basis that he wanted to be our coach, not that he could get any more.”

Brown was 42-17 at UCLA and is 135-44 during five years at Kansas. He also is 446-265 in nine seasons of professional coaching.

Frederick said Brown’s energies will now be focused on recruiting. Kansas did not sign players during the early signing period last fall, and the first signing day this spring is next Wednesday.

“One of the things we talked about on the way over here was trying to get some planes this afternoon so we can get some recruits in here this weekend and capitalize on the national championship,” Frederick said.

The Jayhawks lose two-time All-American Danny Manning, the NCAA tournament’s most outstanding player.