It isn’t a secret that Larry Brown has brought notoriety and expectations to the SMU men’s basketball teams, but Brown has also been reshaping the SMU image.
One way he and his staff of young, aggressive recruiters are changing the image of SMU basketball is by utilizing social media to their advantage, something Brown hasn’t had too much experience with.
“I don’t use it very much. I’m not comfortable with it,” Brown said. “It’s something my son tries to teach me. I’m sure a lot of coaches use it as a recruiting tool, but for me personally I’m just getting used to a cell phone.”
Assistant coach Ulric Maligi takes the lead on social media and it’s mainly because of the intense pursuit of high-profile recruits that SMU is now targeting with Brown on staff. This hasn’t always been the way staffs reached out to recruits. It’s new even for Maligi, who is much younger than Brown.
“When I first started coaching, we used to write hand-written letters and do the mass mail out to recruits, now it has kind of changed to social media,” Maligi said.
Brown may be a rock star due to his NBA and NCAA championships, but he is still getting used to getting back into the college game. He now regularly texts players and has tried to get into Twitter, but said he doesn’t do it that much.
“I don’t enjoy it one bit, but I understand that it’s a useful tool and it’s necessary in order to let the kids know what SMU is about,” Brown said. “I’m never going to get used to it and I’m going to leave it to Ulric and
K.T. [Turner].”
Brown is good about texting, but Maligi believes he has a way to go on Twitter.
“I’d give him a C-. He’s getting better at it though,” Maligi said. “He’s definitely doing a much better job texting and we’re just getting him more acclimated to social media.”
Brown may not ever get into Twitter as much as Maligi would like, but he understands that in today’s world, social media is a necessity for SMU to be able to compete with major programs for players and national attention.
“It’s fun. He sees the importance of it and understanding that this is the wave that we’re on so to speak,” Maligi said. “These recruits that we’re trying to recruit are really into that.”
Ultimately, it’s about having fun for the staff and players that use social media to promote the program and that’s what they hope will help continue to create buzz around the program.
