Waiting for Brown, S.M.U. Joins Legions of His Basketball Employers April 17, 2012, 4:13 pm When you see a headline linking Larry Brown to yet another coaching job, it's hard not to suspect it's from someone doing satire. Because Brown and his apparent quest to coach every men's basketball team in the universe has long passed silly. But yes, it is possible that Brown will be the new coach at Southern Methodist. The way Andy Katz of ESPN reports it, S.M.U. officials are waiting for Brown's decision after he interviewed there on Sunday. Now, at 71, Brown might be entertaining a momentary flirtation with the idea of coaching again, or he might actually have this much trouble with the idea of retirement. Certainly S.M.U. has to know what it's in for. Yes, Brown is a Hall of Fame coach, a great teacher, one of the great minds in the game and has won a championship in both the N.B.A. and N.C.A.A. He also has the coaching attention span of a fruit fly. If S.M.U. is negotiating what Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo.com describes as a long-term deal, that is nothing short of hilarious. Long-term and Larry Brown do not fit well in the same sentence. Brown has only stayed at a few of his 13 coaching jobs longer than most people stay while filling up their gas tank. There was actually a 14th hire - at Davidson College - where he quit before he ever coached a game. His tenures have wavered between successful and tumultuous, or a little of both. The exits have often been exasperating. But there is apparently no lack of employers willing to sign on. S.M.U. would get a big name for its coaching spot, but as Eamonn Brennan writes on ESPN.com, should probably be trying to build for the long haul instead of for a brief flurry of headlines. The Mustangs had a fairly big name for a coach for six seasons, Matt Doherty, and look where that got them: in the Larry Brown hiring line.