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October 2, 2007 |
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BROWN
NAMED INTERIM HEAD MEN'S BASKETBALL |
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Brown
recently retired as an active player after a standout career from
1991-2007 in the Continental Basketball Association (CBA), and in various
major professional leagues in Europe and South America, most notably the
French A League and Brazilian Pro League.
The youngest son of
retired NJCU basketball coach Charles Brown, the younger Brown has coached
during the off-season throughout his professional playing career.
“I am very excited
about this opportunity,” Marc Brown said. “To follow my dad is an honor,
because he’s a legend as a coach and a man. For me, if I can do half of
what he’s done in the last 25 years, I will be successful. While I have
some big shoes to fill, I will continue to run this program with dignity
and class and try to mold these young student-athletes into men, because
that’s really what it’s about. That’s what it was about for me.”
Brown added: “I’ve
seen and been around so much basketball in my life that I have a lot of
experience as a player that will help me mold these young men. I’ve been a
point guard my entire career and have been the coach on the floor. Playing
in so many systems in six countries, has allowed me to be around so many
different types of basketball. I’ve learned a lot, and will be able to
tailor what I’ve learned to my players.” Most recently, Marc Brown served as head coach for NJCU during the 2002 and 2007 George Ballard College Men’s Summer League that the University has hosted for 16 seasons, and as a head coach in the Men’s Jersey Shore Professional Summer League in Belmar, NJ.
Alice De Fazio,
NJCU’s Interim Director of Athletics said: “Marc Brown was an exceptional
player on both the collegiate and professional level. I am confident he
will lead us in our quest to compete for a conference championship and in
his ability to mentor the student-athletes under his tutelage.”
Mike Deane,
who coached Brown at Siena, and currently is the head coach at
Wagner
College,
stated: “I have not coached or recruited a finer player or coached a guy
who understands what needs to be done more than Marc Brown. His
apprenticeship as a coach has been playing in the European and South
American theatre. He is a hybrid of the coaches he has played for, and his
preparation and knowledge of basketball is unquestioned. He is very
intelligent and has grown up in a basketball family.”
Siena’s
all-time leading scorer with 2,340 points in a four-year career that
spanned 1987-91, Brown was the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Player
of the year as a senior in 1991, and a Division I Honorable Mention
All-American by both the Associated Press (AP) and United Press
International (UPI) that year. He was also named Honorable Mention
All-America in 1989 by The Sporting News.
He was also selected
First-Team All-MAAC in 1990, and was a two-time First-Team All-North
Atlantic Conference (NAC) pick in 1988 and 1989 before Siena joined the
MAAC. He was named to the MAAC All-Tournament Team in 1990 and 1991. Brown
was tabbed Second-Team All-East by Eastern Basketball in 1991 after
earning Honorable Mention status from the publication in 1990.
Basketball Times named him Honorable Mention All-East in both 1990 and
1991, and he was a 1990 United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA)
District 2 choice.
He also finished his
career as Siena’s
all-time leader in assists (796, 6.5 apg) and three-pointers made (224)
and led the school to the quarterfinals of the National Invitational
Tournament (NIT) in 1991. He still holds the single-game school record
with 15 assists vs. Army on
February 3, 1990. The
three-pointers record has since been broken.
At the time of his
graduation, he was one of only three players in Division I history to
score over 2,000 career points and accumulate at least 750 assists,
joining Syracuse’s Sherman Douglas and future NBA Hall-of-Famer Gary
Payton, of Oregon State.
But what he may most
be remembered for as a collegian came in the opening round of the 1989
NCAA Tournament when he scored a then-career-high 32 points and converted
two free throws with three seconds remaining to help orchestrate #14
seeded Siena’s stunning 80-78 upset of #3 Stanford University—among the
biggest upsets in college basketball history. His teams held 1-1 records
in the NCAA’s and 2-2 in the NIT.
“His career was
unprecedented and unparalleled there,” Deane, who coached the Saints from
1986-94, and won 166 games (166-77, .683), said of Brown’s Siena legacy.
“He generated a following that put
Siena
in a place as probably the strongest low-to-mid major on the East Coast
because of the atmosphere he created. I may have orchestrated it, but he
created it. It was a pleasure to coach him. He was one of those
once-in-a-lifetime kind of guys.” Brown, known by the nickname “Showbiz,” because of his flashy play-making ability at the point guard position, finished his overall career averaging 18.6 points per game, tallying 2,340 points, 796 assists, 372 rebounds, 221 steals and 11 blocks in 123 games. He was a career .481 shooter and .784 from the line.
At Siena, Brown’s
teams compiled a four-year record of 89-34. He is one of only four players
to win 25 games in two seasons, one of only five players to win 20 games
in three seasons, and one of only three players to play on three
post-season teams. Siena won the NAC Championship in 1988-89, finishing
25-5 overall and 16-1 in the league. The Saints won the league regular
season title in 1988 (23-6, 16-2) and 1989, before winning the MAAC
regular season crown in 1991 (25-10, 12-4).
“He took 15 credits
every semester without ever taking summer classes and gradated right on
time,” Deane recalled. “His nickname was “Showbiz,” but he was all
biz. He got it done. He knew exactly why he was there [in college] and
what he had to do.”
After his collegiate
days, he embarked on a professional career that spanned 16 years and six
countries.
Brown, who graduated
from Siena
in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science in Marketing, used his business
background to handle his own contract negotiations as a professional
athlete. Additionally, he recruited and negotiated contracts that placed
seven American players in the Brazilian Pro League.
In addition to his
experience coaching summer leagues, he was the assistant coordinator of
the Summer Coaching Clinics for Students at Montclair State University
from 1996-2002. From 1993-94, he served as the Summer Supervisor for the
Orange (NJ) Recreation Department. Brown, 38, is a 1987 graduate of Columbia High School in Maplewood, where he enjoyed a standout career for the Cougars. He currently resides in West Orange, NJ with his wife, Marisa, and their two-year-old son, Marc, Jr. |