LSU Hall Of Fame Coach John Brady Leaving LSU Radio To Become LSU-NO Basketball Advisor

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

LSU’s last men’s Final Four basketball coach is moving closer to the game he has always loved.

John Brady, who took the Tigers to the 2006 Final Four and won two Southeastern Conference titles, has been named senior advisor for athletic advancement and men’s basketball strategy at the newly named LSU-New Orleans, the school announced on Friday.

Brady, who was just inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in Natchitoches over the summer, will be leaving his position as analyst on the LSU Radio Network for LSU men’s basketball after nine years. He returns to the school formerly known as the University of New Orleans, where he was an assistant coach in the 1990-91 season under head coach Tim Floyd.

Someone Up There Must Like John Brady, Because He Was La. Sports Hall Of Fame Bound Long Before He Knew It

“I will miss doing the games, but this is a full time position,” Brady told Tiger Rag on Friday. “I will be involved on a daily basis. I feel I can help the program here. It’s still LSU and attached to a city I really like. What a wonderful combination – LSU and New Orleans!”

Brady lived in New Orleans for several years after he retired from coaching in 2016 from Arkansas State. He has lived in Florida in recent years.

Brady, 71, will be introduced at a press conference on Monday at LSU-NO. He will be working with new LSU-NO athletic director Michael Giorlando, who was an assistant coach under Brady at LSU from 2001-04 before becoming athletic director at Loyola from 2004-14.

Brady will be developing “overall program strategy, roster building and long term performance goals” with the basketball team while also “identifying fundraising opportunities,” a university release said.

“His success as a head coach speaks for itself,” LSU-NO head basketball coach Stacy Hollowell said. “And there are very few people who have the experience and perspective he brings to the game. That combination of experience, knowledge and relationships will bring a unique and valuable perspective to our program.”

Hollowell was formerly the head coach at Loyola.

“I’m excited about what our players and staff can learn from him every day,” he said.

Brady was LSU’s coach from 1997-2008 and took the Tigers to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 and won the SEC in the 1999-2000 season before reaching the NCAA Tournament three more times in 2003, ’05 and ’06. Brady’s 2005-06 team finished 27-9 after winning the SEC at 14-2. The Tigers upset No. 1 overall seed Duke in the Sweet 16 that season before beating Texas in the Elite Eight to reach LSU’s first Final Four since Dale Brown’s Tigers went in 1986.

Brady also coached at Arkansas State from 2008-16 before retiring from coaching. He became analyst for LSU Radio in 2017-18 during coach Will Wade’s first season in 2017-18. Wade begins his second term as LSU’s coach this season after a one-year stint at North Carolina State last season and the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons at McNeese State.

A native of McComb, Mississippi, Brady played at Belhaven in Jackson before becoming a graduate assistant coach at Mississippi State. He moved on to a head coaching job in Louisiana at Crowley High before becoming an assistant at Mississippi State and UNO, then the head coach at Samford in Birmingham from 1991-97.

Brady was inducted into three Halls of Fame over the past year – the LSU Athletics Hall of Fame in September, the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches Hall of Fame in May and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame in June.