Rumors, rumors, rumors.
Kansas basketball coach Larry Brown continues to be besieged by rumors he’s headed elsewhere.
“A Kansas City (TV) station says I’ve already left,” Brown said Wednesday, referring to a report saying he’ll coach the Charlotte (N.C.) Hornets NBA expansion team next season.
How does the fifth-year Jayhawks coach respond to such talk?
“I’m sitting here now talking about recruiting,” Brown shrugged. “I won’t be able to respond until Danny (Manning) graduates and people accept jobs that are out there. It’s nature for people to speculate.”
Brown, per his custom, refuses to come right out and say he’ll be at Kansas next season. But he will deny parts of the Charlotte rumor.
“I can deny it. I’ve not been offered a job,” Brown said on the eve of tonight’s 6:05 p.m. showdown against Kansas State in Manhattan. The game will be televised live by ESPN. “I haven’t talked to people about the job. If it’s not Charlotte, it’d be somewhere else,” he added.
“I’ve been denying four years now, starting my fifth. I honestly think it’ll never change until Danny leaves. Once Danny leaves and people see me here, then they won’t have as much ammunition.”
Brown, during the early signing period, said recruiters from other schools used the Charlotte rumors against him. He said things have improved and expects an outstanding recruiting year.
“It’s going great, real positive. It’s been a pleasant surprise,” Brown said. “The final thing is to get ’em to say they’re coming to Kansas.
“I’m going to have a chance to be face-to-face with a lot of these kids and that will help. When signing date came in November, I didn’t have the opportunity to be on the road. As soon as kids are ready to make a decision, I’ll be around. It makes a big difference.”
Brown right now has more important things on his mind than never-ending rumors. His Jayhawks, 16-8 overall and 5-4 in the Big Eight, tonight begin their much-publicized “death march.”
KU will, in an upcoming stretch, face 15-6 K-State (No. 14 a week ago) tonight, then No. 6 Duke on Saturday at Allen Fieldhouse, No. 4 Oklahoma next Wednesday in Norman and No. 15 Missouri a week form Saturday in Columbia.
“We’ve faced something like this in the NCAA’s,” Brown said. “We (at UCLA) played Ohio State, Clemson, Purdue and Louisville. That’s impressive. One year at UCLA, Oregon State, Washington State and Arizona State were all in the Top Ten and we played ’em all in a period of time, but not all on the road and not back-to-back. I’ve never experienced anything like this.”
Brown isn’t overly enthused about the stretch.
“It wouldn’t be good for anybody’s team,” he said. “When I looked at the schedule (before injuries and ineligibilities), I thought it’d be great for our team. I thought we’d be ready and it’d be a tremendous opportunity to prepare for things to come.
“Right now we are playing as well as we can play,” he added.
Kansas State – losers to Oklahoma and Missouri last week – enters following an 83-65 win over Colorado Tuesday. Kansas, meanwhile, has won four straight, including Tuesday’s 70-48 smashing of Nebraska.
Tonight’s clash marks the final KU-KSU meeting in Ahearn Fieldhouse. KSU will play in new Bramlage Coliseum next season.
“I think if you follow basketball, this is one of the great rivalries,” said Brown, whose squad has won four straight in Ahearn. “Ahearn and Allen are two of the great fieldhouses. They are what colleges should have on campus. I don’t know if I’m sorry to see it closed down. It’s a tough place to play.”
One tradition may or may not end tonight – the KSU fans’ annual act of throwing live chickens at KU players.
“You think they’ll have some?” Brown asked. “Heck, suit ’em up and I’ll play ’em.”
