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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