Basketball Coach Brady Out at LSU

[February 09, 2008]  BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- John Brady was fired as LSU's basketball coach Friday, his team struggling with an 8-13 record.

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

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

But after the 27-9 Final Four season the team fell to 17-15 in 2007, with a 5-11 conference mark, and things got worse this season - 8-13 overall so far, 1-6 in the SEC.

Brady's wife sobbed openly during Friday's news conference at LSU while Brady spoke haltingly, wiping away tears by the end of a long, sometimes rambling statement. He noted he inherited an LSU program 10 years ago that was facing stiff penalties for NCAA violations and 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.

Bertman said he was concerned about falling attendance at LSU games but added, "the ultimate reason John was fired was not attendance. They just didn't win enough games."

Brady has three years left on his contract. Bertman said Brady will get his base salary of $300,000 a year unless he is hired at another school.

Bertman said he had planned to fire Brady after the LSU-Tennessee game Saturday but was afraid word would leak out to coaches and players before the game.

[Associated Press; By MARY FOSTER]

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