John Brady was hired as the new basketball coach at Arkansas State on Wednesday, less than six weeks after being fired by LSU. Brady, who led LSU to the Final Four in 2006, replaces Dickey Nutt, who stepped down Feb. 19. A year after the Tigers reached the Final Four, they went 17-15 and then opened this season 8-13 before Brady was dismissed.

The 53-year-old Brady said he wants the Red Wolves to become the Sun Belt Conference leader in attendance, which needs to be done to help recruiting.

"Hopefully I'm the right coach to get that done," Brady said. "You have to be able to recruit the players that will help you win in the league you play in."

Brady wants to bring in top-level non-conference opponents, too.

"I don't think you schedule better than your team is at that moment," he said. But once the team is ready, he said he would work to put big-name teams on the schedule.

At LSU, Brady was 192-139 in 11 seasons. Before moving to LSU, he went 89-77 in six years at Samford.

After Nutt resigned, former Arkansas coach Nolan Richardson expressed interest in the job. Richardson, who has been out of college coaching since being fired by the Razorbacks in 2002, spoke with Arkansas State officials and visited Jonesboro. Last week, Richardson said he was no longer a candidate.

Nutt stepped down last month after going 189-187 in just under 13 seasons. Arkansas State went 10-20 this season and hasn't made the NCAA tournament since 1999.

Brady is not the first coach to move from a Southeastern Conference school to the Sun Belt. In 1994, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock hired Wimp Sanderson after his contract was bought out at Alabama in 1992.