Brown willing to lend a hand

Self excited about having former boss weigh in on current KU program

Out of coaching for now, maybe forever, Larry Brown will stay involved with the game of basketball during the 2006-07 season.

The 65-year-old Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer, who was recently fired by the New York Knicks, told the New York Post he’d be a roving instructor this fall and winter, visiting practices of various NBA and college teams.

“Maybe I can be some help without it being a burden. I think I’ll be able to stay involved,” said Brown, who at some point will visit Kansas University, where he led the Jayhawks to the 1988 NCAA title.

KU coach Bill Self worked as a graduate assistant on Brown’s 1985-86 KU Final Four team.

Suffice it to say, Self will welcome Brown with open arms and not consider the legend a “burden.”

“I’ll talk to coach. If there’s any way, we’d love to have him come here and be part of what we’ve got going,” Self said. “Coach (Brown) is a guy we could bounce some ideas off of.

“There’s not many situations he hasn’t seen and certainly understands. When we talk, we’ll hopefully figure out when would be a great time for him to be out here.”

Brown, who assuredly will make a stop at Wichita State where his former player, Mark Turgeon, coaches the Shockers, will not be able to be a hands-on instructor.

“By rule he could only visit with the coaches,” Self said, indicating no 1-on-1 coaching could be conducted with the players. “But we as a staff could talk to him and hear his evaluation of practice, hear his insights and ideas. It’s something that obviously would be great for us here.”

Self scoffed when asked if there was anything left to learn from Brown, considering he worked with him in ’85-86.

“That was 20 years ago,” Self said. “Coach has changed a ton since then. There are a lot of things we could learn from him.”

Brown, who has yet to move his family out of their new house in Greenwich, Conn. – there’s talk he may make his permanent home in Philadelphia, where he had a successful run coaching the Sixers – said he might be through with coaching for good.

“I’m hanging with my kids, wife, trying to get on with my life,” he told the Post. “I don’t see coaching, not for the foreseeable future, maybe ever.”

Brown will conduct a coaching seminar in August at the University of Memphis with his former KU assistant, John Calipari.

The clinic is partly for unemployed coaches.

“Now I am one of them,” Brown told the Post.

He’s still hurting from his firing after a 23-59 season, just his fourth losing season in 34 years as a head coach.

“I’m trying to get over this but it is as bad as it gets,” Brown said. “You can’t get over this stuff. I still have to take care of my family and do what’s best for them. We do have some decisions to make as a family.”

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Vegas tourneys on tap: The second half of the summer basketball recruiting evaluation period starts today and runs through the end of the month.

Self and his assistants are off to Las Vegas, where there are a whopping three prep tournaments this weekend: the Adidas Super 64 at Desert Pines High School; the Main Event at Durango High School; and the Reebok Big Time in suburban Henderson.

“Vegas is such a tough place to recruit. People who don’t know Vegas do not realize how spread out the city is. You have some gyms 30 miles from the next gym you need to be at,” Self said.

“A lot of coaches put a lot of miles on the car trying to see so many players at three different events. The best way to do it is have all the coaches out there at some point in time.”

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Prep to trim list: James Anderson, a 6-foot-5 senior at Junction City (Ark.) High, tells Rivals.com he will trim his list of schools at the end of this month.

Anderson, who averaged 31 points and 12 rebounds per game his junior season, is currently considering KU, Alabama, Arkansas, Baylor, Connecticut, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Tennessee and Texas.