Colorado head coach Tad Boyle appears at a news conference before practice for an NCAA tournament game in Orlando, Fla., Wednesday, March 19, 2014. (Phelan M. Ebenhack, Associated Press file)
Some fans who follow Colorado men’s basketball closely may have rolled their eyes at the recent announcement that the Buffaloes had received an oral commitment from senior guard Deleon Brown of Grand Rapids (Mich.) Christian.
On the surface, the commitment of Brown, 6-foot-4 and 175 pounds, looks odd. Brown, who averaged 20.3 points last season as a junior, has not been given a star rating by Rivals.com, and Colorado coach Tad Boyle has signed a slew of national top-150 players in past years, most of whom rated four stars.
Also, Brown’s offer list, according to Rivals.com, includes mostly schools in the Mid-American Conference. CU is the only school from a power conference to offer Brown.
Then we learned from BuffStampede.com of the Rivals network that Brown plans to delay his enrollment by a year and attend a prep school for the 2015-16 season so that he can add strength and bulk to his slender frame.
Young for his class, Brown won’t turn 17 until December. Already announcing that he will attend a prep school for a year likely was the reason he was not given a star rating by Rivals.com.
“I wouldn’t want to start at (Colorado) when I am still 17,” Brown told BuffStampede.com.
Still, some may ask, why would Boyle go after such an unheralded player?
Here’s where I also defer to the coaches. If coaches see something in a lower-rated player than apparently recruiting sites did, I always go with the opinion of the coaches. It’s said that CU coaches have been evaluating Brown since July and evidently love his potential.
Colorado fans won’t get to see Brown suit up in a Buffs uniform since the fall of 2016.
It will be interesting then if fans see attributes in Brown’s game that Boyle and his staff evidently see or foresee now.
