OT: Anyone remember Justin Brown from UCONN?

[John Locke]

Hey guys, does anyone remember a player called Justin Brown, who played for UCONN some years back? He's Australian, and is a 7 footer.

Can you tell me anything about him?

[Pogue Mahone]

Hey guys, does anyone remember a player called Justin Brown, who played for UCONN some years back? He's Australian, and is a 7 footer.

Can you tell me anything about him?

Late bloomer. Redshirted at UConn his first year. He was close to seven feet tall but only weighed about 175 lbs. Seriously.

He went over to Europe (Italy or Turkey, can't remember, hell it might even have been Germany.) After his first year, he participated in a camp for post players. He did well in the camp (top-10 maybe?) and played on a summer league team for Dallas with Pavel Podkolzine.

That Dallas summer team played the Chinese National team and Menge Bateer was just chewing up Podkolzine. I mean, mismatch of ginormous proportions. They switched Brown onto Bateer and he pretty much shut him down. Yao didn't play. I can't remember if Brown was being covered by Bateer or not on the defensive end but he had a very healthy double-double (at least 20/10.) Josh Howard and Devin Harris were tearing it up in that game, too, if I remember correctly. Del Harris was the Chinese National Team coach and, at the time, a Dallas assistant.

I think Brown had the makings of a good project player because he came to the game late. Personally, I hate UConn players for the most part and I didn't think much of him when he was coming out. Realistically though, he probably could have done no worse than former Kent State alum (and Hawk and Pacer) John Edwards. No great shakes by NBA standards but definitely could have played as a 3rd center.

Did your team sign him? Someone else in your league?

[nyhuskyfan]

He never really played at UConn. He redshirted as a freshman when they won the title and then backed up Jake Voskuhl for a year and then fifth-year seniour Souleymane Wane for a year. When it looked like he might get a chance to play a little more as a junior and senior, Emeka Okafor came in (as an unheralded big man) and tore it up.

The raw potential was there for him to be a serviceable college big man, but he caught a bad break that UConn got the best big man they've ever had out of nowhere just as he was becoming an upperclassman.