ked him about Nicole, who was an off-and-on presence in

Larry Brown is leaving SMU after turning down a contract extension, ending a four-year run during which the Mustangs made the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1993 and then were banned from postseason play last season.SMU athletic director Rick Hart said Friday that Brown, who was signed through next season, had been offered a new deal through 2020.This morning, however, I was notified by his agent that he would be stepping down, Hart said. Coach Brown was able to accomplish so much in his four years on the Hilltop, including leading us to our first conference title since 1993. He has left his mark on SMU basketball, and we are thankful for what hes done.Brown didnt return messages left on his cellphone by The Associated Press.The Hall of Fame coach had repeatedly said how much he loved what he was accomplishing at SMU. Brown, who turns 76 in September, had indicated late last season that he wanted to keep coaching as long as SMU would have him.Brown told the Dallas Morning News he had been discussing an extension with SMU officials for the past 20 months, but they were unable to agree on terms. The coach didnt get into specifics of what he wanted and what was offered by the school.The coach also expressed regret at the timing of the news, which became public in the aftermath of five police officers being shot to death Thursday night in downtown Dallas, only a few miles from the SMU campus. Seven other officers and two civilians were wounded in the attack, which took place during a protest over this weeks killings by police of black men in Louisiana and Minnesota.Associate head coach Tim Jankovich will take over as head coach, as had been expected since he came to SMU with Brown in 2012 after serving five seasons as Illinois State head coach.I have the utmost confidence in Tim based on both his coaching resume as well as my time working with him here on the Hilltop, Hart said. I know he will keep our program among the nations elite, and I look forward to the seasons ahead.SMU was 25-5 last season, which came after the Mustangs won 27 games each of the previous two seasons.The Mustangs won the American Athletic Conference title in 2015. They then lost their NCAA Tournament opener 60-59 to UCLA after a controversial goaltending call that went against SMU with 13 seconds left.Brown was suspended for the first nine games last season for NCAA violations that also prevented the Mustangs from going to their second consecutive NCAA Tournament.The NCAA ruled last September that a former mens basketball administrative assistant completed online course work for a student to meet NCAA initial eligibility standards and be admitted to the university. That was among infractions against the mens basketball and mens golf programs.Guard Keith Frazier, the player in question, averaged 11.9 points in 10 games as a junior last season before leaving SMU and transferring to North Texas. SMU opted not to appeal the one-year postseason ban or Browns nine-game suspension. Jankovich was the acting head coach until Brown returned just before Christmas.The Mustangs finished last season with only seven available scholarship players. They won their first 18 games, staying undefeated longer than any other Division I team, but were 7-5 over their final stretch.Brown is the only coach to win NBA and NCAA titles. He held a record nine NBA jobs, and his only other college head jobs were two seasons at UCLA (1979-81) and five at Kansas (1983-88).The Jayhawks won the 1988 national championship before Brown returned to the NBA as San Antonios coach. The Jayhawks were banned from postseason play the next season and placed on probation for recruiting violations that occurred during Browns tenure.UCLA was 42-17 under Brown, but the Bruins runner-up finish in the 1980 NCAA Tournament was later vacated by the NCAA after two players were determined to be ineligible.Brown was 1,098-904 in 26 seasons as an NBA head coach, including the 2004 championship with Detroit.The 57-year-old Jankovich was 104-64 at Illinois State from 2007-12. He had previously served as an assistant coach for Bill Self, at Illinois (2002-03) and Kansas (2003-07). Jankovichs only other Division I head coaching job was at North Texas, where he was 53-57 from 1993-97. Among his other coaching stops were as an assistant at Vanderbilt, Oklahoma State, Baylor, Texas and Kansas State. Wholesale Custom Basketball Jerseys Store . Perhaps Carroll was so prepared for a break because he believes there is very little the Seattle Seahawks need heading into the off-season. "I dont see anything that we need to add. We just have to get better," Carroll said. Wholesale Custom Jerseys . Argentina winger Ezequiel Lavezzi and France midfielder Blaise Matuidi scored, with star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic setting up both despite having a poor game by his high standards. Forward Eduardo gave Ajaccio the lead in the sixth minute after being set up by right winger Benjamin Andre, and the Corsican side looked comfortable in the first half, with the lively Johan Cavalli causing problems with his probing runs from midfield. http://www.basketballcustomjerseys.com/ . Darren Helm scored on Detroits sixth attempt in the shootout and then Jonas Gustavsson stopped Andrew Shaws shot, lifting the Detroit Red Wings to a 5-4 win over the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday night. Custom Basketball Jerseys China . LOUIS -- St. Custom Basketball Jerseys Outlet . -- Devin Hester is done returning kicks in Chicago. There was a time, almost 10 years ago, when it was my job to follow Michael Phelps around the country -- and around the world -- documenting his every move. I studied his facial expressions, scribbled down his splits during every race and frequently lingered on the pool deck for more than an hour after his races were over, hoping he would eventually wander over and share a few snippets of insight that I could relay to readers.I felt like I knew him then, as well as anyone who covered swimming, which was also to say, barely at all.Writing about him as he grew up in the public eye, stumbles and all, was complicated. What he did in the pool, on his best nights, was surreal. I frequently sat down in front of my laptop after watching him break a world record and felt like no words in my head could do it justice. He pushed the limits of human potential, and to witness that, again and again, was one of the great blessings of my career.He also often seemed more like a corporation than a person. He lived in a bubble, a bubble he both needed and resented. He rarely looked people in the eye when he answered questions. He rarely spoke frankly about anything. For promotional purposes, he decided that he needed to be bland and polite every time the cameras were on. When they were off, he could be surly, indifferent and immature. Other than his coach, Bob Bowman, he didnt have many people in his life who could be brutally honest with him, and it showed. (I once asked Bowman if he felt like a father figure in Phelps life, considering Phelps went months and years without speaking to his father, Fred. Bowman explained that their relationship was far more complicated than that.)Phelps was trying to figure out who he was -- like so many of us as we transition from our teens to our 20s -- but he had to do it with the world watching. At times, that was suffocating. He shared the same anecdotes, over and over, that he thought were symbolic of his growth.?Once you heard them a few times, you understood that he was essentially reading a script people wanted to hear.I was the hometown newspaper reporter assigned to shadow him in the years leading up to Beijing, and though we got along fairly well, we grew weary of seeing one anothers faces. I once flew across the country to hang out with him before an award show, lured by the promise of an hour-long one-on-one interview, only to have it end after four minutes. I looked at my digital recorder in horror as he was whisked away by his handlers. There were no apologies. Phelps made it clear, in that moment and many others, who held all the power in our dynamic.Greatness requires a certain amount of selfishness. I understood that and never held it against him. The reality of who he was and who he is now has always been more complicated than most people understand. I watched him treat people poorly, listened to other swimmers gripe about him in private and mulled over how much any of it mattered. (Some of the complaints were jealousy; some were legitimate.) As Walt Whitman said, we all contain multitudes. I also saw Phelps act friendly, generous and human.This was especiallyy true with kids.dddddddddddd He had a bottomless supply of patience at swim meets for all the kids who wanted pictures, autographs, hugs or high-fives. A lot of interactions with people, he tolerated or?faked. With kids, it always seemed genuine. It was as if he knew, on a subconscious level, that his own childhood had been given away in exchange for his sports destiny, and when he saw kids just learning how to swim the butterfly, he longed for that innocence. One of the first times I thought he was genuinely curious about my life was after my daughter was born in 2009. I mentioned it in passing, little more than small talk, and he wanted to hear more. He urged me to enroll her in swim lessons as soon as possible.I thought about all of this on Saturday while watching Phelps win gold in the 4x100-meter medley relay, the race he insists will be his last. Sports narratives are always cleaner than reality. Its easy to say he has found peace, that hes sober, that hes content leaving the sport the right way. I so want this to be true, because if it is, its a hopeful story. Its a much better ending than seeing him get another DUI at 4 a.m. or watching him gamble, all alone, at the local casino because hes still struggling for a purpose outside the pool. With Olympians, we frequently make the mistake of trying to cast them as reflections of our best selves. That only magnifies their mistakes when they make them, as if theyve let the whole country down. Its unfair, but that arrangement seems to be inescapable.I dont know how Phelps will handle retirement. I didnt think he was finished after London, despite his insistence that it was over, but I do think its over now. Countless obstacles exist, however, just beyond the horizon. I hope he finds something else to chase, something to fulfill him.It might be family. It warmed my heart to see Phelps and his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, holding their son, Boomer, in Rio this week. I once asked him about Nicole, who was an off-and-on presence in his life even prior to Beijing. In a rare moment of candor, without using her name, he said any girl who required anything of him beyond the bare minimum wasnt going to last in his life. He was the person he wanted to be, he had goals he was going to pursue, and he saw no need to change. It was an interesting window into a 23-year-olds view of love and relationships. To see him now, striving to be an equal partner and parent while juggling one last athletic challenge, is a beautiful coda to his swimming career.Now, he likely faces the biggest challenge of his life. He has to figure out who he is and what hes capable of without the water. I think hell succeed, but maturity and sobriety are an endless journey, a fidelity to an idea, not a finish line you cross and never struggle with again. Every four years, Phelps gave us some incredible memories, and while there were certainly rewards, he also paid a price along the way.Root for the second act of his life to be just as rewarding as the first. ' ' '