HOWIE LINDSEY
Denny Crum and Rick Pitino . Brown says he learned from both Hall of Fame coaches .
“ Coach Crum , I took his strategy in scheduling ,” Brown said . “ We play a tough schedule in the beginning and you learn from them . That ’ s Coach Crum ’ s philosophy . And then , hopefully , by the time you are at this point , your team is moving in the right direction . Those games that you have when you blow teams out , you just don ’ t learn from those games . You learn early against tough teams , so when that happens at the end of the season , you already know from earlier how to handle it .”
This year ’ s Grenadier team played well , but took losses to Bellarmine , Lindsey Wilson and Georgetown . They learned from those games and won 9 of 10 games from Nov . 30 through mid-January .
From Pitino , Brown says he learned to focus on getting his team just right for a run in the postseason .
“ Coach P always had his guys ready for tournament play ,” Brown said . “ He may not have played a tough early schedule , but he got them ready in different ways , and by tournament time , they were always tough .”
On the sideline , Brown is a little closer to Pitino than Crum ’ s Cool Hand Luke persona .
“ Coach Crum was always so laidback , on the court and off the court ,” Brown said . “ Now , I ’ m not like that on the court , but he would also tell us all the time : ‘ You guys are grown men , and you came here to play college basketball . I am going to let you play .’ That is what I try to give to my guys now . And Coach Pitino as well . He would reign them in , in the beginning , but when it got to conference play and then tournament play , he would loosen that string up and let them play . You have to play loose at the right times .”
Brown explained , “ Really I learned from both coaches that you always have to let the talent show . I try to let my guys go . As long as they play defense and rebound , I ’ ll take a few bad shots every now and then . I want to let them show their talent .”
His ability to work with players is really his coaching hallmark .
“ I think one of the reasons he ’ s such a successful player ’ s coach is because he ’ s done it ,” IUS Athletic Director Joe Glover said . “ He ’ s been there at the highest level and knows exactly what they ’ re going through as student-athletes .”
Brown ’ s knowledge for the game was evident to the players back when he was a strength coach at UofL .
Marques Maybin , former UofL star and current host of Midday with Marques Maybin on 93.9 FM said , “ You hate to be so cliché with Wiley Brown , but you know he just knows . All you have to do is talk to him for three minutes , and everything that comes out of his mouth is right . It ’ s hard to doubt him because he did it as a player and a pro . Everything about Wiley Brown says he ’ s knows basketball , especially Louisville basketball .”
It was that basketball knowledge , combined with his connections in the local basketball scene , that made Brown so attractive to IUS a decade ago .
“ I ’ m very blessed . I really am ,” Brown said . “ I have a great job here . I loved my time at the University of Louisville , and I was fortunate to use my experience at the University of Louisville to get this job here . ... This school to take a chance on a coach who had never been a head coach before . I had coached AAU basketball , but they gave me a shot .”
Brown took the reins at IUS and ran with them , winning 24 games in that first season and more than 200 games since taking over .
“ He wanted to be in that position for a long time , and when he got his opportunity he has taken advantage of it ,” Crum said . “ I am really proud of him . It ’ s a good place , a nice university and it ’ s close to home here . I don ’ t know where he could have gone that ’ s better than that spot .”
Brown understands Kentuckiana ’ s basketball culture and knows where to find the right players to add to his roster mix . Every player on the IUS roster is from an easy drive to New Albany , nine from Kentucky and eight from Indiana .
But Brown ’ s success at IUS isn ’ t just a product of Crum and Pitino or his local connections . His success has come from years of hard work .
“ Everything Wiley Brown has he earned with hard work ,” Louisville Assistant Athletic Director Jim McGhee said . And McGhee , a 40-year staff member at UofL , knows all about hard work . “ Wiley worked hard at every spot and worked his way up . And he can work with anybody .”
The roots of that work ethic go back to Brown ’ s hometown . When introducing himself to crowds or in interviews , Brown likes to start with the line , “ I ’ m from Sylvester , Georgia .”
“ My hometown means very much to me . It is still special to me ,” Brown said . “ I don ’ t know if I could live there today , but my older sister lives there and my younger sister lives there . My grandmother , who raised me , passed away a couple years ago . And my mother , they passed away about a year apart . ... I still go back to visit .”
Brown and his three siblings were raised to value hard work .
“ My grandmother always said , ‘ There are going to be some bumps in the road , but how you get over those bumps is what will make you the man you are going to be ’,” Brown said . “ I grew up like that - we didn ’ t have very much , but we didn ’ t know it .
“ We always made the best of it , and family is the most important thing . I love going back home to visit my sisters . That ’ s my roots . That ’ s where I started from and why I am where I am today .”
Brown was a standout athlete from the very beginning . He was an excellent football player , but basketball seemed to be his first love .
“ We lived in the projects in my early years , and there was always basketball goals there . The rims didn ’ t stay on for long , but in those days , it wasn ’ t concrete for the court . It was dirt . We had dirt courts back then ,” Brown recalled . “ We didn ’ t have nets on the rims , so you didn ’ t know if it went through or not in the dark . Playing like that always made us stronger .” Louisville discovered Brown on a tip . “ We had an alumnus and traveled in that area , and when he didn ’ t have anything else to do , he would go to the high school games ,” Crum said . “ He told me about this kid who played football as a tight end and defensive end . He was an allstate athlete , but he wanted to be a basketball player . We went and talked to him , and he came to Louisville .” Football was still an option to the very end . “ I was either going to go to the University of Georgia or Florida State , but some things happened with the coaching situations there , and Coach ( Jerry ) Jones came down to watch me play ,” Brown said . “ Coach Jones used to coach in Tifton , Georgia , and he knew the area . He brought me up to Louisville , and I fell in love with the area .” And the area fans fell in love with him , too .
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