Baton Rouge, La. ? John Brady was fired as LSU’s basketball coach Friday with his team struggling at 8-13, a dismissal that left him in tears at a farewell news conference.

“I’ve coached in the best league in the country, and I’ve coached a lot of great guys,” Brady said during the afternoon news conference with LSU athletic director Skip Bertman. “They’ve done some great things that had not been done here in a long time.”

Brady was the third-winningest coach in the university’s history. His 192-139 record included two first-place finishes in the SEC and a trip to the 2006 Final Four.

But after that 27-9 finish the team fell to 17-15 last season, with a 5-11 conference mark, and things got worse this season – just one win in seven SEC games.

Associate head coach Butch Pierre will take over for the rest of the season.

Brady’s wife sobbed openly during the news conference while Brady spoke haltingly, wiping away tears by the end of a long, sometimes rambling statement. He noted that he inherited an LSU program 10 years ago that was facing stiff penalties for NCAA violations and that it was on probation when he won his first SEC championship in his third year.

“Under those circumstances it’s a pretty good 10-year run,” Brady said.

Brady said he was too competitive to quit but respected Bertman’s decision to dismiss him.