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          Old coaches still going strong

          • Dana O'Neil, ESPN Senior WriterNov 24, 2014, 12:00 AM ET
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            • College basketball reporter.
            • Joined ESPN in 2007.
            • Graduate of Penn State University.
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          Maybe this is why Allen Iverson and Larry Brown had such a fascinating love/hate relationship through their six years together in Philadelphia.

          When asked why he's still stalking shootarounds and basketball courts some 40 years after his coaching career began, Brown grinned.

          "I get to go to practice every day,'' the 74-year-old SMU coach said. "What's more fun than that?''

          Wait, we're talkin' 'bout practice?

          With Brown, yes, we're always talking about practice. The bane of every player's existence is the man's definition of heaven, the sound of sneakers squeaking his idea of a symphony.

          He has a hobby -- just this summer he took a dream golf trip to Scotland -- but a life without basketball to Brown is not much of a life.

          That makes him uncommon, if not unique. The oldest active Division I basketball coach is by no means alone in the AARP coffee klatch. Just last week, Jim Boeheim blew out 70 birthday candles and still shows no sign of handing over the reins to Mike Hopkins, hoops' own long-suffering Prince Charles in waiting.

          And Steve Fisher just reupped for three more years at San Diego State. He's 69.

          That prompted a debate among ESPN.com staffers on our Tipoff Live Spreecast last week: Which among the Grumpy Old Men crew would stick around longest?

          "Fisher's only 69,'' Brown said when asked the same question. "And I look better than him.''

          What's interesting is that age hasn't really hurt any of them. Ditto 67-year-old Mike Krzyzewski. Brown admits he tells his players to "Google me up" so they know about his career, and if they do know anything about him, it's that "I'm the guy that coached Allen."

          But despite a multi-generation gap, there's no disconnect. Syracuse is coming off its most prolific and successful run in school history; San Diego State has become an elite program on the West Coast under Fisher's tutelage; Krzyzewski's team is No. 4 in the country and currently includes the top crop of freshmen in the country; and though eligibility issues sent him packing to China, top recruit Emmanuel Mudiay chose SMU.

          That's S ... M ... U

          Part of their success, of course, is simple to figure out. They know what they're doing. They're good coaches.

          The other part, though, is that they are like your crazy old uncle at family dinner: They really don't care what people think about them anymore. Buoyed by years in the business, made Teflon by their successes, they have the luxury and freedom to coach and teach the way they want to, indifferent and unaffected by would-be petulance from their players and opinions from hangers-on.

          "I always tell kids, 'I've coached 1,000 guys better than all of you,'" Brown said. "I'm not trying to be critical. It's the truth, and they need to know that.''

          The flip side is, having so much to teach and vessels that are slightly less receptive to receive could age even a young man.

          At a recent SMU shootaround, Brown worked his gum into a piece of rubber and stalked the court at Indiana's Assembly Hall trying to find a healthy balance between encouragement and exasperation.

          The nail on the tip of Brown's little toe possesses more basketball knowledge than his players do, but they don't always appreciate that.

          But Brown hangs in, selfishly because he needs the game; unselfishly because he thinks the game still needs him.

          "I love to teach,'' he said. "When you get to the NBA, guys can tell in five minutes who can coach and who can't. They know who cares about them and who cares about basketball. The ones who don't, they don't last. College kids need that. They need coaches to teach. ''

          Layups

          It's not even the end of November, and already the sky is falling in some places (Kansas) and shining brightly in others (blazingly in the Bluegrass, in fact), but how much of these early-season reactions and overreactions will have staying power? Here's a quick look at a few hot-topic teams, players and issues that seem to be truly good, iffy and headed south:

          Decision rendered

          • Wisconsin, Arizona, Kentucky, Duke. The teams that looked in the preseason as the most likely to make the Final Four are that good.

          • Justise Winslow. The Duke freshman may be to Jahlil Okafor what Joel Embiid was to Andrew Wiggins a year ago. That is to say, every bit as good. The 6-foot-8 forward has swished 7 of 18 3-pointers already this season, making stoic NBA scouts turn into googly-eyed teenagers.

          • Platoons*. I said here all of a week ago that a team without a starting lineup was like a football team without a starting quarterback. And then I saw Kentucky play against Kansas. The Wildcats not only annihilated the Jayhawks; the platoon system all but demoralized them. The * is there simply because, so far, everyone is happy with the platoons. A bit of discord, though, could send the plan into quick retreat.

          • James Blackmon Jr. The Indiana freshman may not be getting some of the attention of his classmates around the country, but he deserves it. He currently leads the nation in scoring (22.8 points per game), and is second in the combo platter of points/rebounds/assists, with 29.0. What can't be quantified but is instantaneously recognizable when you watch Blackmon play: how smart he is.

          Jury is out

          • Kansas. The Jayhawks hover on the line of jury is out and verdict is in because there is a ceiling here. Cliff Alexander isn't going to have a growth spurt, so KU is going to be undersized in a lot of games and that's going to be an Achilles heel. But Bill Self's teams almost always get better, and there's no way this team is the trainwreck it looked like against Kentucky.

          • Harvard. Voters fell so thoroughly out of love with mid-major darling Harvard, you'd think everyone went to Yale. The Crimson went from No. 25 in the country to not receiving a single vote after its upset loss against Holy Cross. Harvard won't be back in the rankings anytime soon, either. Tommy Amaker's squad plays just one real head-turning nonconference game, against Virginia on Dec. 21. So odds are we won't be talking about the Crimson much for a while. But that doesn't mean we won't be talking about Siyani Chambers, Wesley Saunders and the Crimson in March.

          • Florida. How good is Florida? Who in the world knows? The Gators, without Eli Carter and Dorian Finney-Smith, are making an early case for the Michigan State Honorary M*A*S*H Unit Award this season. Whatever Florida does in the Bahamas this week will have an asterisk.

          Verdict is (likely) in

          • Syracuse. This is not to say the Orange will be awful; this is to merely point out that a fan base spoiled by five consecutive 30-win seasons might want to temper its enthusiasm. This Syracuse team has limits, and a 30-win season is a high, high bar.

          • SEC futility. Piling on? Yes, well, it's also like shooting fish in a barrel. LSU, picked to finish fourth in the league, lost to Old Dominion, while Auburn lost to Colorado ... by 31. Four days later, the Buffs lost by 23 to Wyoming.

          Free throws

          • It's a good week to be a Hurley. Little brother Danny engineered the first court-storming of the season when his Rhode Island team knocked off No. 21 Nebraska on Saturday night.

          Meanwhile, big brother Bobby somehow managed to all but avoid the avalanche of snow that piled onto the city of Buffalo.

          The Bulls were in Kentucky and Arlington while the storm raged, but when Hurley returned he found his neighborhood more than manageable.

          "My neighborhood got roughly six inches of snow over those three days,'' Hurley said via text. "Five miles away received six feet. Luckily our program and school wasn't in the impact zone of lake-effect snow.''

          In fact, Buffalo has been able to continue, business as usual, with practices and its regular routine. The Bulls did have to cancel a game against Montana State, but that should be rescheduled next month. They plan to travel to their game against Grand Canyon on Tuesday.

          • Early front-runner for biggest turnaround of the season: Cornell. The Big Red already has matched its win total (two) from last season.

          • Florida Gulf Coast's Brett Comer set the Atlantic Sun's all-time assist mark this week. He has 634. Which brought to mind perhaps the single greatest -- and nerviest -- assist in NCAA tournament history: Comer's casual underhand flip alley-oop toss to Chase Fieler as the Eagles were trying to stave off a furious rally from Georgetown. The roof in Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center still has damage from being blown off by the reaction.

          • Auburn faces Tulsa in Las Vegas on Monday night. Why not rename this the Retread Coaches Bowl?

          • Player of the week: Brad Rustik, Gonzaga. You won't find Rustik on the Zags' roster, but Mark Few might want to sign him up. The Gonzaga sophomore nailed a half-court attempt during a promotional contest during the Zags' game against SMU. Rustik pocketed $500 for the effort. It's worth watching.

          Games worth watching this week

          • How will Villanova's more traditional half-court offense fare against VCU's HAVOC in Monday's Progressive Legends Classic? The Wildcats are 89th in adjusted tempo, according to kenpom, while the Rams are fourth.

          • UConn hosts Texas on Sunday. The Longhorns will be without point guard Isaiah Taylor. That's a big loss for Texas regardless of the opponent; even bigger against Ryan Boatright.

          And-1

          On Tuesday night, the Charlotte Hornets rolled into Indiana for a Wednesday game against the Pacers. At first, one former Indiana Hoosier thought this was a good thing.

          Not long after, he reconsidered.