Back to his Roots - Former YC basketball coach Dave Brown enjoying interim role for NAU hoops - at age 70 - The Prescott Daily Courier

Prior to this past Saturday, it had been 21 years since the lively Dave Brown paced in front of a college basketball bench as the head coach of Northern Arizona University's women's team in Flagstaff from 1983-90.

Late this past week, the 70-year-old Brown, who first gained notoriety as coach of the Yavapai College men's basketball squad from its inception in 1970 through the 1982-83 season in Prescott, returned to the sidelines as interim head coach for the NCAA Division I NAU men's program.

Brown, the longtime director of NAU's Walkup Skydome athletic complex, agreed to coach the Lumberjacks through the end of the 2011-12 campaign after veteran lead mentor Mike Adras resigned unexpectedly last Friday to reportedly pursue other opportunities.

Adras was in the midst of his 13th season at NAU and entering the final year of a three-year contract. Under Adras this winter, Northern Arizona had gotten off to a rough 2-7 start.

And, so, last Friday, at the request of NAU President John Haeger, Brown took the reigns of the men's hoops program. The next night at home, Brown guided the Jacks to an 80-67 victory over Cal State Bakersfield, snapping a four-game losing streak.

This Saturday, NAU heads to Tempe to face Arizona State for a televised game on Fox Sports Arizona. Tip-off is at 4 p.m.

In a phone interview Wednesday from the NAU campus, Brown said he's humbled by the opportunity to coach again - and excited for what's ahead.

"What we're trying to do is put together a representative program, and it's quite a challenge," said Brown, who has 26 years of head-coaching experience. "But the important thing is that there's a tremendous group of young men here, and I'm surrounded by a tremendous group of young coaches that are going to help an old guy get through this. It's going to take a tremendous amount of patience and some obviously hard work."

At this point, Brown said he's focusing on the team concept and assigning roles for his players, who had apparently become confused in the former system.

NAU starting guard Stallon Saldivar said Brown is not as loud or as vigorous as Adras, but the players respect his knowledge of the game and listen attentively to him.

"He gives you a lot of confidence, and that's what a lot of our players like to see," Saldivar said. "The team camaraderie is a lot better, where we're more energetic and you see a lot of smiling faces rather than when everyone was down."

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Although Brown acts younger than his age and is in good health, he is no spring chicken. In fact, Brown is currently the second oldest coach in D-I men's basketball behind only Tevester Anderson of Jackson (Miss.) State, who's 74.

"I'm probably not going to demonstrate taking a charge anymore like I used to when I was at Yavapai when they wouldn't do it," Brown said. "But coaching is not difficult for me. Maybe I can share some of my experiences as a coach and educator and, hopefully, they can grow from that."

Brown has become a respected, entrenched figure at NAU over the past three decades. Inducted into the university's athletics hall of fame in November, he's served for 22 years as the Skydome's director, coordinating tournaments and a recent renovation of the stadium, among several other tasks.

Despite his myriad duties, Brown's remained passionate about basketball since he left coaching. In fact, he talks frequently with his son-in-law, Gar Forman, who is the general manager of the NBA's Chicago Bulls.

Since the 2008-09 season, Brown has done color commentating for all of the Lumberjacks men's basketball team's home games, so he's no stranger to the program. Nonetheless, he realizes that it will take time for the players to adjust to his style.

"I'm probably a different kind of approach to them," Brown said. "But I was really proud of them. It just shows the strength of these young men to be put through the adversities and the trauma that you can imagine (practicing and playing without their former coach)."

Once the season ends, NAU intends to conduct a national search to find a new full-time coach, although the assistant coaches on the present staff will likely be considered for the position, Brown said.

New associate head coach Jay Collins and new director of basketball operations Will Hensley, a former Jacks player, were assistants under Adras.

As NAU coach, Adras compiled a 193-170 overall record and led the Lumberjacks to three straight Big Sky Conference Tournament championship game appearances from 2005-06 to 2007-08.

"We have great respect for coach Adras and the years he spent here," Brown said. "He did many good things within the basketball program, and we want to maybe try to take it in a different direction."

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Long before he stepped foot on the NAU campus, Brown competed in basketball and track at New Mexico State in Las Cruces, N.M.

After his college graduation and a stint as a coach at Brophy Prep in Phoenix, Brown was hired as a founding charter faculty member at Yavapai College in 1970.

Brown served as YC's first athletic director and men's basketball coach as well as physical education department chair for 13 years. During his last two years in the early 1980s, Brown coached both the Roughriders men's and women's hoops teams.

"They put us on the road - we recruited basketball players all over the country," Brown said of the Yavapai basketball programs. "It nurtured a group of tremendous student-athletes - some kids that have gone on and been very successful."

When he first arrived in Prescott, Yavapai College did not have its own gym. At the time, Brown was an energetic 26-year-old anxious for a challenge. He went on to establish the framework for the YC athletic department, which started with only two sports, men's basketball and baseball.

"My office was in the National Guard Armory (present-day Grace Sparkes Activity Center next to Ken Lindley Field) over there by the softball fields," Brown said. "The president (of YC) at the time said after he hired me that he wanted to have a program, and build it around basketball. And I told him, 'I'm your man for that.' "

Although both of Yavapai's basketball programs were eliminated earlier this year because of budget cuts, Brown remains the all-time winningest coach of the men's team with an overall record of 284-119 (.704 winning percentage) in 13 seasons.

One of his finest moments as YC coach came during the 1979-80 season when he led the Roughriders men to a 23-15 mark and a fourth-place finish at the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Tournament.

Ironically, Brown left Yavapai College after administrators cut men's basketball the first time, back in 1983. The sport would not return until the 1987-88 campaign.

Brown says he still has a lot of friends in Prescott and he would like to eventually see the Roughriders' basketball programs return.

"I hope at some point in time they bring back both of those programs," Brown said. "I feel bad."

Former YC women's basketball coach Brad Clifford, who played for the Roughriders men's team in the late 1980s and has known Brown for 28 years, said Brown is a junior college coaching legend in Arizona.

"He's a great basketball mind, and I think that's what they (NAU administrators) saw in him," Clifford said of Brown's hiring as the Jacks' interim men's coach. "When he was here, he was a great recruiter and had tremendous success. He can step in and give some stability and some guidance in a tough situation for those kids. He will do well."

In a sense, Brown has come full circle in his professional life as a selfless, devoted educator and coach. Although retirement's not far off, he remains a committed professional.

"As long as I'm around this university (NAU), I want to help. That's why I went to Yavapai - to help. That's why I coached at Brophy - to help," Brown said. "And it's been a great run. As long as I'm in it, I'm going to try to help."