More on Derek Brown

It's no longer news that San Jose State Coach George Nessman has landed a verbal commitment from Chino Hills High backcourter Derek Brown. But what hasn't been presented is the quality of the student-athlete the Spartans are getting come 2010-2011 so let's rectify that omission.

Etop Udo-Ema is a longtime basketball figure in the world of southern California prep basketball who played college ball in the late 1980's at UC Irvine. He operates the Compton Magic, a club team organization that 'houses' a number of squads and the 6-foot-1 Brown thrived in the point guard role for Udo-Ema's top team.

When asked about his on-the-floor leader, Udo-Ema responded with multiple accolades: "San Jose State got a steal [in Brown]. He's a player at the PAC-10 level. We had Allen Crabbe (headed to California) and Bryce Jones (headed to USC) on the team and they are probably the best two wings in the country so we had so many weapons on the floor. Derek had to figure out his role on our team."

That's because Brown is called upon perform differently when playing for Chino Hills -- asked to do just about everything. According to the MaxPreps site, Brown averaged a team-leading 16.6 points game and 5.7 assists a contest as a junior for Chino Hills. He went to the foul line 148 times last season and nabbed 65 steals, also tops on the squad.

Udo-Ema continued, "Derek can score, pass and defend. He is a big-time ballhandler, I would say a Globetrotter ballhandler. He isn't super fast and isn't going to jump over a defender and dunk but he is quick with the ball. He is also very deceiving at changing speeds and switching gears. Derek is just very hard to defend."

"He is a full qualifier with a 3.2 grade point average and a score of 1580 on his SAT," Udo-Ema added.