PMAC Court To Be Named After Dale Brown

When the 2021 LSU men and women’s basketball teams take the PMAC floor, the court will be named in honor of former Tiger men’s coach Dale Brown.

The LSU Board of Supervisors voted over the weekend by a 12-3 decision to name the Pete Maravich Assembly Center’s court after Brown. It’s been a process long in the making and the honor was finally bestowed upon Brown.

Several legendary former Tiger basketball players spoke up in favor of naming the court after Brown:

He changed the trajectory of the state of Louisiana and the mindset of all stereotypical negatives.

Collis Temple

It matters for one thing: you’re going to be a good person and you’re going to make a difference. The guy’s a true humanitarian. If you’ve been around coach Brown, he’s all about helping people.

Ricky Blanton

I came [to LSU] because of him. I stayed here because of him.

Rudy Macklin

If the testimonies by former players wasn’t enough, Brown’s on the court accomplishments certainly warrants the honor. Brown won 448 games, the most by an LSU men’s basketball coach, plus four regular season SEC championships and the program’s only conference tournament title in 1980. Brown took LSU to 13 NCAA Tournaments and led the Tigers to Final Fours in 1981 and 1986.

But naming the court after Brown wasn’t a slam dunk proposition. The Advocate reported Friday’s discussion lasted two hours and talks were described as “heated.”

A sticking point came when some board members argued the court-naming should include former women’s basketball head coach Sue Gunter. Gunter, who does have a statue inside the PMAC, had success comparable to Brown’s leading the women’s team to 14 NCAA tournaments and the first of five straight Final Fours LSU would make in the mid 2000s. Some members of the board proposed the court be named the Gunter-Brown Court but the notion was defeated 12-3.