From ugasports.com..
The cornfields of southeastern Illinois are nothing like the crime ridden and impoverished streets of Flint, Mi., but they were home to Georgia junior forward Takais Brown for two years before he chose the University of Georgia as his college. Now, he is one of the brightest young stars on the team and a million miles from both.
Even though he sat out the first two games, Brown has come off the bench and is currently second on the team in total scoring with 83 points an average of 16.6 points per game. This is exactly what assistant coach Pete Herrmann expected when he began recruiting him more than two years ago.
"He is doing what we thought that he would do," said UGA assistant head coach Pete Herrmann.
As for Brown, he remains humble despite all the sudden attention.
"I am just a player," he sad. "If I am a starter or come of the bench, I just need to be ready to play, and bring my A-game."
Things have not always been so rosy. Born in Hampton, Va., Brown grew up in Flint, Michigan where he attended Flint Central High School. By his junior year, he had established himself on the basketball court to become the star of his team as a senior.
"His senior year was magnificent," said Flint Central head coach Gary Martin. "He made All-State and All-City, and he had a triple-double against probably the best team in the state that year with 26 points, 10 rebounds, and 14 blocks."
Brown averaged 15 points, 16 rebounds, and 6 blocks per-game as a forward/center. He shot 67 percent from the field and 72 percent from the free throw line his senior season.
With such success comes notoriety and college coaches were certainly reading the press clippings. However, college was not on the mind of Brown early on in his high school days, and in the end, it caught up with him.
"Colleges were recruiting him, but he did not have the grades," said Martin. So, Brown packed his bags and headed south, but not all the way south. He enrolled at Southeastern Illinois College in Harrisburg, Illinois, which is not far from the Indiana and Kentucky borders with the Prairie State. There he began hitting the books and playing junior college ball under coach Todd Franklin.
While already standing 6-foot-8, he was a relatively skinny 215-pounds and a raw talent. Still just 17 years old, Franklin immediately saw potential in Brown. Little did Brown know it at the time, but his name was already showing up on Georgia's watch list.
"When you coach long enough, it is like you know everybody in the nation," said Herrmann who has coached college ball for more than 25 years.
It turns out that Franklin was a graduate of Western Kentucky University, the school Georgia head coach Dennis Felton coached at before taking the job in Athens in 2003. Herrmann was a part of Felton's Hilltoppers staff, and had gotten to know Franklin.
Franklin contacted Herrmann, who had accompanied Felton to Athens, and Herrmann investigated the situation.
"I saw right away that he would be a real positive force for us down low," said Herrmann. "He is strong, tough, and talented, and I knew that he was going to grow as a player at Southeast Illinois because Todd Franklin is a good coach. He is very inside oriented, low post oriented, and that he would teach Takais, and I knew that he would fit in very well with the way we would play him for coach Felton."
At Southeastern, Brown picked up where he left off at Flint Central, and quickly became a major contributor for the Falcons. By the end of his freshman year, he knew that playing at the Division 1-A level was a possibility.
"I was raw coming out of high school, and after I started to come along, Georgia was one of the first colleges that contacted me," said Brown.
With the interest being shown by Georgia, Brown knew that he had to buckle down academically and perfect his game if he was to be able to advance to a four-year school. That summer, 2005, instead of hitting the road to play in the showcase tournaments like mostly young basketball players, he stayed put in Harrisburg to prepare for his sophomore season. He also spent time in the weight room where he would ultimately manage to put on nearly 30 pounds in his two years at SIC.
As a sophomore, Brown continued to develop as a college prospect, and once again, he began to appear on the radar of top programs. Soon, he was receiving attention from the likes of Indiana, Minnesota, Tennessee, Ohio State, Xavier, and many more, but through all of this Georgia remained in the mix.
At the end of the season, he was named third team NJCAA All American after averaging 19.3 points per game, 9-4 rebounds, 2.2 steals per game as a sophomore, and was ranked by Rivals.com as the No. 5 JUCO player in the nation.
Even more schools came calling over time, but there was one thing that prevented him from signing with some schools. Unlike most other players, Brown did not take part in the early signing period and instead waited until the following spring. Since most schools only take two to four players a year in college basketball, many did not want to gamble and went with other options.
However, several schools remained involved, but in the end, he chose the team that had been with him all along: Georgia.
"Towards the end I had a lot of the big ones, Cincinnati, Indiana, Purdue, but I stayed loyal," said Brown. "I was always taught not to just go with people who jump on your bandwagon."
While loyalty and the opportunity to play right away weighed heavily in his decision, Brown lays most of the reason why he came to Athens at the feet of the man who first strolled into coach Franklin's office in Harrisburg.
"It was coach Herrmann," said Brown. "I talked to him a lot. I was with coach Felton most of the time on my visit, but it was coach Herman that I saw the most during recruiting."
Brown continued that Herrmann never let up on recruiting him for the Bulldogs.
"He was after it the whole time and he was so excited about the whole thing," Brown explained. "When other people were not showing much interest, he was so excited about what we could do if I came to Georgia. That inspired me to go to Georgia."
Arriving in Athens last spring, he immediately noticed a difference in nearly everything about his life. No more mean streets of Flint, no more country life of rural Illinois, but a vibrant college town complete with 34,000 students and one of the most successful athletic departments in the nation.
"It is a very friendly atmosphere," is how Brown describes being in the Classic City. "I am used to small schools. At Southeastern we were in the middle of a cornfield, so I am used to a small school."
Like he did in his transition from high school to junior college, Brown jumped right into things and immediately made a splash on the basketball team.
"He has earned the respect of his teammates because he plays hard all the time," said Herrmann. "I think that from the first time that he was here last spring the other players felt like he was going to be a big contributor among a good group of big guys up front."
So far so good, but then came the trouble.
Behind a few courses, Brown needed to make up ground right away to keep his eligibility. He enrolled for fall semester and loaded up on courses. The plan backfired, and soon he was struggling to keep on top of his schoolwork.
"I kind of underestimated the quality of work," he told UGASports in November. "I ended up with 17 credit hours, they all were tough classes, and I had never been in that situation where I had all my tough classes at the same time. . . . I made the mistake of trying to tough it out instead of just dropping a class. Basically I had too much on my plate academically."
Once he fell behind, coach Felton took swift action to prevent a problem from becoming a disaster and suspended Brown from the team.
"We are first and foremost in the business of educating, and our players have to be students that learn, grow, and earn degrees," Felton said in a release on November 1st. "Takais is not doing all of the things he needs to be doing as a student. Therefore, he must devote all of his time to his class work right now and come to understand its importance. I am going to do everything within my power to give him every opportunity to succeed."
"When they told me I could not play, it was like my world was coming to an end," said Brown looking back. "I was willing to do whatever it took to get back on the court."
That is exactly what he did. Brown took the same kind of winning attitude he has on the basketball court into the classroom. Opting into some extra-credit and passing a couple of tests, he was back in action two games into the season.
Now, after five games he has the second highest scoring percentage on the team (.618), and is tied with Rashaad Singleton with 16 offensive boards. He had a season high 23 points against Valdosta State, had 21 earlier this week in the win over Gardner-Webb, and two blocked shots at Wake Forest.
"That is what I was brought here to do," he said. "I am a scorer, and rebounder, and I can block shots."
As stated, none of Brown's early success is surprising to Herrmann.
"He has been solid as a low post performer and a presence when he is in there," said Herrmann.
Still, there is plenty of work to be done.
"He is not rebounding as well as he wants to, and as well as we think he can heading into the SEC," continued Herrmann.
Between now and the start of league play in January, Georgia will play four tough opponents in Gonzaga, Georgia Tech, Clemson, and Wisconsin.
"Those will be good tests for him to see if he can continue to make progress rebounding the ball," said Herrmann.
Currently at 250-pounds, Brown is not looking to put on any more weight. Instead, he will continue to work on his stamina and dexterity.
This is exactly how the guy that brought him to Athens, Pete Herrmann, would want it.
"I am kind of an old school guy, and I would like to see him be as agile and as well conditioned as he can be," Herrmann said in closing. "The weight does not concern me as much as his strength and his ability to go up and down because we are going to run."
thanks last warrior. i was wondering what happened to him. it sounds like he made a nice home for himself in GA. I can't help to think that he might not have been mobile enough to keep up with this team although his rebounding and inside presence would have made him a good role player.