Gerald Brown found the perfect college for him was just several miles down the road, but he traveled a difficult path to find it.
The 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior from Frederick Douglass High in Baltimore accepted a scholarship to play Division I basketball at Providence College, but the guard was spending more time on the bench than on the court. By the end of his second season, he elected to transfer to Loyola ? and back home to Baltimore, where he could see his son?s birth and tend to his sick mother.
“I?ve always liked Big East play, and thought it was a good conference,” Brown said. “Back then, you didn?t have really good mid-majors and I thought going big time was the place to be. But I was having personal reasons and I wanted to come back home.”
That was good news for Loyola. Brown led the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference in scoring with 22.2 points per game, eighth-best nationally. The Greyhounds streaked to their second consecutive winning season with Brown in the lineup, going 18-13 overall and finishing in the third place in the conference with a mark of 12-6.
But Loyola has set its sights even higher this season. With Brown and four other seniors returning, including forwards Omari Israel (9.1 points per game) and Michael Tuck (9.1 points per game), the Greyhounds were picked to finish second in the MAAC, just two points behind Siena. But Loyola also will have to get past Niagara, which earned the conference?s lone berth in the NCAA tournament ? a place Loyola has not been since 1994.
“Loyola was a chance to come home and I have always been the type to work better under pressure,” Brown said. “I didn?t want to go to a place where I would be just another player at another college.”
Brown enrolled in Loyola in 2004 and following NCAA eligibility rules, sat out the 2004-2005 season. Following the birth of his son, J?linkai Brown, he was ready to get back on the court. But the season before he regained his eligibility, tragedy struck. Gerald?s 36-year-old mother, Pam Brown, died from complications from gull stone surgery.
“He?s far from perfect and has issues, but he has come a long way and I like that,” Loyola coach Jimmy Patsos said. “He?s fought through things. He?s no phony. He?ll tell them ?I?ve messed up.?”
In his mother?s memory, Brown has a tattoo of his mother on the left side of his chest, just above his heart.
“I keep her right here,” Brown said tapping the tattoo over his heart. “My life has been a roller coaster ride, so I take every mistake and learn from it and everything I do good I learn from it.”
