By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
National sports announcer Tim Brando of FOX Sports joined Tiger Rag Radio on Tuesday night to discuss his beloved friend Dale Brown, the former Hall of Fame LSU baskeball coach who passed away at age 90 on Friday in Baton Rouge.
“It doesn’t matter how old a man can be or how prepared you think you may be for the loss of someone you love,” Brando said. “But I wasn’t prepared.”
Brando, 70 and a Shreveport native, became friends with Brown early in his career when he was a radio announcer in New Orleans. Brown was LSU’s coach from 1972-97 and took the Tigers to two Final Fours, to Elite Eight finishes, four SEC regular seasons championships and an SEC Tournament title.
“I always dreaded that phone call I knew I would get at some point,” Brando said. “I was at a Minnesota Gophers practice on Friday morning, and I literally had to walk off the field and compose myself. Because I lost it. I knew I would, but there was not stopping that. Sometimes, emotions are just too strong. Dale was this close to a lot of people. I’m not alone.”
Brown was also “this close” to the national championship he always craved, talked about and lived for while LSU’s coach.
On March 22, 1987, at the NCAA Tournament Midwest Regional championship game in Cincinnati, Brown and his underdog No. 10 seed Tigers had No. 1 seed Indiana and coach Bobby Knight on the brink of a major upset. But LSU point guard Fess Irvin missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw opportunity in the final seconds, and Indiana luckily eked out a 77-76 win. LSU, which blew a double-digit lead in the final minutes, could’ve had a larger lead in the final moments because of Knight’s temper tantrum in the first half.
But in one of the worst no-calls in NCAA Tournament history, officials did not T up Knight after ranting and raving at the scorer’s table and dismembering a phone. And LSU did not get two technical free throws. Possibly intimidated officials also made limited calls against Indiana for the rest of the half.
And Knight and Indiana went on to win the national championship at the Superdome in New Orleans with a 97-93 win over UNVL in the semifinals and a 74-73 win over Syracuse in the title game on a Keith Smart jumper at the buzzer that was not a designed play.
Brown and LSU would have been very hard to beat in the Superdome in New Orleans with LSU fans flocking to the place. Brown went 2-0 in the 1981 NCAA Regional finals at the dome.
“No question, he wins the national championship,” Brando said. “The ’87 team absolutely had the magic. The games leading up to the Elite Eight game with Indiana, LSU was playing at a higher level.”
The Tigers defeated No. 7 Georgia Tech, 85-79, and No. 2 seed Temple, 72-62, in Rosemont, Illinois, in the first two rounds. Then LSU beat No. 3 seed DePaul, 63-58, to get to Indiana.
“The 1987 Final Four in New Orleans? If they had gotten there, there’s no way they would have lost in my mind,” Brando said. “Not the way Dale’s teams always played there in New Orleans. That would’ve been automatic. If Fess makes that 1-and-1, they win. They flat out win.”
NBC play-by-play announcer Billy Packer said that as Irvin approached the line.
“And Dale could’ve exorcised the Bobby Knight demons from the past,” Brando said.
Knight with point guard Isiah Thomas – the second overall pick of the 1981 NBA Draft – beat LSU in a Final Four national semifinal in 1981 in Philadelphia, 67-49, and went on to win the national championship. LSU star forward Rudy Macklin had broken his finger in LSU’s previous game – a 96-85 win over Wichita State in the Superdome to reach LSU’s first Final Four since 1953. Macklin played, but was not himself because of the injury.
“And I think they would’ve gone on to win the national championship,” Brando said. “Dale’s career would’ve been three Final Fours in seven years and a national title.”
LSU reached the 1986 Final Four despite battling a Chicken Pox epidemic on the team early in the season.
“And they controlled that game (against Indiana) with the Freak Defense,” Brando said of a wild, man-to-man and zone combination defense Brown designed and wrote a book about. “It was proof that the guy knew how to coach. All role players on that team. It was not made of stars. And yet they continued to play at this really high level as a team. It was just the kind of team that Dale would maximize with.”
Brando will be one of the speakers at funeral services for Brown that are being scheduled tentatively for Nov. 11 on the LSU campus.
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