Division II Star Donovan Brown Talks UMass Commitment
Frank Martin delivers another standout signing during transfer portal
With the recent exits of Jaylen Curry, Rahsool Diggins and Marqui Worthy, the Massachusetts basketball team desperately needed a high-volume scoring point guard. They got it with Division II transfer portal pick-up, Donovan Brown.
The junior from Bolingbrook, Ill., was the main staple for a Florida Tech team that didn’t have a great year last winter. The Panthers finished 6-22 on the year, finding their main positive from Brown himself. The junior at the time, averaged 20.7 points per game, finishing third in the Sunshine State Conference in scoring average.
Last season, not one of the Minutemen players averaged more than 17 points per game. Diggins led the charge with just 16.8.
“My strength is being able to score off the dribble,” Brown said. “I can move around with the ball and get shifty with people.”
His consistency stands out in the stat sheet. Brown had 16 games scoring 20-plus points last season, and also had seven games shooting over 50 percent from the field. He led his team in points, assists, field goals made, free throws made and finished second in steals.
Previous to Florida Tech, Brown attended Waubonsee Community College where he played and started in 33 games, leading his team in scoring. On top of that, he finished First Team All-Conference and as a First Team All-Region honoree. Brown’s domination from the JUCO level to the Division II spotlight didn’t involve a big change in game speed. This more recent transition expects to be different.
“I realized (I could go Division I) during the first game of the season,” he said. “Coming from JUCO, you kind of hear about the difference between Division I and Division II. The physicality and speed of the game was different when I played Division I teams.”
Once Brown entered the transfer portal, he faced a different situation.
“Coming out of high school, I wasn’t talking to a lot of schools,” he said. “This time, over 60 schools were speaking to me whether it be high-majors, mid-majors or low-majors. It’s been a really different experience.”
The Division II star had many places to choose from, but it was UMass he preferred at the end of the day. That had a lot to do with the pull that head coach Frank Martin still has.
“He had called me off the rip and I realized he was a genuine dude and really down to earth,” the junior said. “He doesn't tell you what you want to hear, he tells you what you need to hear.”
Martin has had a lot of experience with guards throughout his coaching career. At Kansas State and South Carolina, he worked with NBA guards such as Rodney McGruder and P.J. Dozier. Brown hopes to add to that high-caliber list. He also felt that UMass would be a school where he would receive the best opportunity to display his ability.
“Really for me, I wanted to go somewhere where it was genuine love,” he said. “I know there were a lot of schools that didn’t know my game that were throwing a lot of money at me.”
The Illinois native also felt a family connection towards UMass’ new conference. He emphasized the difficulty his parents had attending many games while he went to Florida Tech. Now, that becomes much easier with their son playing in the Mid-American Conference.
Brown was adamant that name, image and likeness was a small factor to his basketball motivation.
“It’s run deep since I was about three years old. There would be times where I would go to the court with my Dad for about two hours and he’d tell me to leave, and I’d start crying. I can’t have a bad day when I get to wake up and go play basketball.”
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