Isiah Brown Named Gatorade Player of the Year in Washington
- Thread starter thewildcat2011
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Outstanding. All the more impressive is that he beat out 4*s going to #1 seed Oregon, Oregon State and Arizona State. Can't wait to see him in Evanston.
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He goes to the line A LOT
He gets most of his points via penetration, either taking it to the rack or as defenders respond to his quickness, pulling up and hitting the midrange. Gets fouled A LOT and scored a lot at the free throw line. Can shoot the 3, but I don't think that's his strong suit. Definitely not a Carmody type recruit in that respect.
I dunno how that translates to the college level, but he did score 50 on Garfield who was #3 in the nation at that time. I dunno how good their guard defense is, but they couldn't handle Brown one on one. OTOH, I watched the tape of the game and he does throw up more than a few bad shots that CCC wouldn't allow. His team seemed bereft of much other talent (they only scored 62 in the Garfield game), but it was impressive to watch the Garfield defense collapse 3 guys on him when he drove and he'd still score or draw the foul. He is quick and has nasty ankle breaking moves. Didn't see him play a ton of D, though Lakeside was in a 2-3 zone most of the time, and they largely shoved it into their forward who is a 4 star recruit going to Oregon.
He gets most of his points via penetration, either taking it to the rack or as defenders respond to his quickness, pulling up and hitting the midrange. Gets fouled A LOT and scored a lot at the free throw line. Can shoot the 3, but I don't think that's his strong suit. Definitely not a Carmody type recruit in that respect.
I dunno how that translates to the college level, but he did score 50 on Garfield who was #3 in the nation at that time. I dunno how good their guard defense is, but they couldn't handle Brown one on one. OTOH, I watched the tape of the game and he does throw up more than a few bad shots that CCC wouldn't allow. His team seemed bereft of much other talent (they only scored 62 in the Garfield game), but it was impressive to watch the Garfield defense collapse 3 guys on him when he drove and he'd still score or draw the foul. He is quick and has nasty ankle breaking moves. Didn't see him play a ton of D, though Lakeside was in a 2-3 zone most of the time, and they largely shoved it into their forward who is a 4 star recruit going to Oregon.
I think that the parallels to Demps hit the mark. Brown will create off the bench to start and could ignite our second unit offense and give McIntosh some minutes to rest. What's great for next season is that NU will be adding four new players to a 20 win team in Law (not new but did not play last season), Benson (first team all-state in Illinois) and Brown (Gatorade Player of the Year in Washington) and then you add in the highest rated of the freshman class in 6'9" Rapolas I. You add those four to a nucleus of McIntosh, Falzon, Pardon, Skelly, Lindsey and Ash and you have 10 athletic basketball players whose skills should allow us to play at a higher tempo which after watching IU and some other teams you need to do in the current brand of winning basketball.
I know the competition against he plays very well and it is very good basketball. He is a talent. Good for CC to get him.
Demps is a better pure shooter and trey artist I think. Brown is a better penetrator and can do more to create his own shot. I could also see McIntosh and Brown playing together, as Brown's strong point is scoring vs. distributing.
For those in the know, how does Brown's game compare to Abdur-Rakhman at Michigan? Bielein's teams always seem similar to ours in that both teams depend on the three and sometimes go through long scoring droughts. This year in games when Mich was unable to knock down the three, including the game against us, Abdur-Rakhman would drive into the paint and get baskets to get their offense going. Demps, at times, filled that role for us this year, and I wonder if Brown has the quickness and finishing ability to fill that role next season.
Don't forget NU may have a full, 11 man squad next season as well. Well, at least we can hope. G or C, what do you say?
Willy, a "full squad" is 13 scholarship players. NU had just 11 scholarship players last season with the Law injury and the Vassar scholarship. Vassar would need to transfer for NU to be able to offer his scholarship to another player.
Sorry, I must of been thinking of my pee-wee teams roster. Instead of transferring couldn't he just go on a "needs" roster or pay his way.
Obviously, he played in a competitive division on a team that was not great, but what concerns me is fewer than two assists per game. Historically, Northwestern has not had guys where you can just clear out and let them work, though it seems like Brown has some of that in him. Still, he's definitely not the size of a traditional 2-guard, so he'll either have to play at a sometimes significant size disadvantage defensively, or learn to play some point. That all said, there are minutes for the taking at the offguard spot next year, and probably not at the point. Regardless, I'm excited to watch him.
I'd say the one way to look at that is if he had ideal 2 guard size and had a well rounded game AND could put the ball in basket like he can, then he wouldn't be coming to NU. So.... we got a chance for a real scorer to turn into a sleeper star for us. We'll see....
Bingo. Player development is the key. I look for Falzon to make a big step next season.
IMO he would only consider Stanford as an alternative. Lakeside is probably the best prep school in the Pacific Northwest and would be among the elite in the western US. Bill Gates and Paul Allan are among the alums. With his team's limitations he had to create shots. This is no sleeper star. I admit I do not follow basketball and know little about the game. I do follow Washington high school basketball for a number of reasons and know the leagues reasonably well. By chance I saw the Star Times players(top BB players featured by the Seattle Times) and was very surprised that he signed with NU. To my understanding Wash offered him but he turned them down. Academics are a huge issue here. Bigger than this board understands with his exposure to Lakeside. He may be the real deal.
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