also made First Team All SEC, and Howard Carter made the Second Team. LSU advanced to the Final Four by beating Wichita State 96–85 in the Elite 8 round of the 1981 NCAA tournament, played in front of home-state fans in the Louisiana Superdome. To reach the regional final, LSU defeated future SEC rival Arkansas, coached at the time by Eddie Sutton, who would tangle with Brown for four seasons at Kentucky. Unfortunately for Brown and the Tigers, Macklin was injured in the Wichita State game and was not 100 percent for the Final Four. The Tigers lost in the national semifinal game to Indiana. In addition, for the third year in a row, LSU was eliminated by the eventual national champion, as Indiana (led by Isiah Thomas) won it all. Brown was named College Basketball Coach of the Year for his team's performance. Disappointment and investigation: 1982–1985 Like many other teams that reach the Final Four with a senior superstar, Brown's Tigers experienced a decline in the next two years. LSU still had star players in Howard Carter and Leonard Mitchell, but the team would not make the NCAA tournament in 1982 and 1983. The Tigers finished 14–14 and 19–13 in those years, and were invited to the NIT in both seasons but lost in the first round. The team got back on track in the next two seasons, but these years proved to be even more frustrating. The next wave of star players had emerged. Among them were Jerry "Ice Man" Reynolds, Derrick Taylor, Nikita Wilson, Don Redden and John Williams (Brown's most celebrated recruit to date). The Tigers had improved regular seasons, finishing 18–11 in 1983–1984 and 19–10 in 1984–1985. The 1984–1985 team also won the Southeastern Conference championship with a 13–5 record. However, both seasons ended with tremendous disappointments. In 1984, the Tigers were upset by #10-seed Dayton. 1985 was even more embarrassing for the Tigers. LSU was a #4-seed going into the 1985 NCAA tournament, but were beaten badly by #13-seed Navy (led by a then-unknown David Robinson). It was also during this time that Brown began having some of his most notorious run-ins with the NCAA. Brown became an outspoken and relentless critic of the NCAA, calling them "hypocrites" and even "The Gestapo". He has consistently argued that the NCAA should be more compassionate when enforcing rules governing compensation for student-athletes, especially in situations