Without Jeff Brown's move to Gonzaga, there's likely no Zag mania, no Hooptown USA: 'He's the one' | Dave Boling

After a disheartening freshman season at the University of Washington tested Jeff Brown's love for basketball, he was lured back to Spokane to play for Gonzaga.

At the time (1990), if anybody had tried to call Spokane "Hooptown USA," it would have evoked quizzical looks.

Yet by the time Brown was done at GU, he was MVP of the West Coast Conference and had led the Zags to a 22-8 record and their first postseason tournament appearance. That success set in place a foundational cornerstone for a program that would become a national sports phenomenon.

The swelling fanbase during Gonzaga's streak of success (27 consecutive NCAA Tournament bids) contributed to Hoopfest becoming the world's largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament - generating the self-applied title of Hooptown USA.

His role in the early stages of regional basketball fanaticism leads to Brown's induction into the Hooptown USA Hall of Fame this week. It's a fine honor for a player who was on the verge of giving up the game before ever scoring a point for the Zags.

Brown left Mead High as the Washington Class AAA State Player of the Year (1989), signing with Husky coach Andy Russo.

But before Brown even got to UW, the Huskies replaced Russo with Lynn Nance. Under Nance, the freshman scored one field goal in 37 minutes of play for the ninth-place team in the Pac-10 Conference.

"It was a really rough freshman year," Brown said in a recent interview. "I didn't know if this was indicative of college basketball, but I wasn't sure that college basketball and I would be a long-term (relationship)."

Former Mead High teammate Jarrod Davis, redshirting at GU, bumped into Brown's parents, who told him how unhappy Jeff was at UW. Unhappy, in fact, to the point that he was considering giving up the game.

"I said, are you freaking kidding me, get over here to Gonzaga," Davis recalled his pitch to Brown. "We're going to be good; we have this whole redshirt team (sitting out) ... we just need one piece."

Davis could see how Brown's relationship with the game had changed. "He had lost it a little bit, mentally, he was burned out and tired of the dudes on the team and the grind of it. Coming to Gonzaga was a whole newfound love for playing again."

Brown would have to sit out a redshirt season because of transfer rules that now seem so archaic.

Davis had talked up his friend as such a great scorer that expectations were enormous when Brown joined the Zags for an offseason pick-up game. "I told (Jamie) Dudley and (Geoff) Goss and Stan (Matt Stanford) that this guy's gonna change it for us."

On the court that first day, Brown was ordinary.

Davis: "I remember Dudley coming up and he's like, 'This guy is the savior? He's terrible.' "

Dudley, a point guard, recalled extenuating circumstances that he learned later from Brown. "He had been horseback riding with his girlfriend all morning, which, in itself, is ridiculous and hilarious, but his legs weren't great."

Brown's initial performance? "It reduced expectations, that's for sure," Dudley said.

When reminded that his new teammates questioned his athleticism, Brown responded "Rightfully so."

Brown's apparent lack of conspicuous physicality surely caused some opponents over the years to underestimate his threat. He was listed at 6-9, but his athleticism was based in exceptional hand-eye coordination and understanding of the game, rather than the more obvious run-and-jump abilities.

"I was not going to beat anybody with my pure quickness or physical jump, right?" Brown said. "I was blessed with some size and some pretty good hand skills, and lot of credit would go back to my high school coach, Jim Preston. He played small-college basketball and had a huge knack for scoring."

Brown was so efficient that his points accumulated quietly, like passive income, and it was only after the game that one would see he had been the leading scorer with 20 or more. In his three seasons, each ending in his being named all-conference, he averaged 17.9, 16.7 and 21.0 points.

He was not without liabilities on the court. "Brown literally does not know what defense is; we still make fun of him about that to this day," Dudley said. "He was a scorer."

Underestimating Brown was a mistake that came with costs. A high scholastic achiever, Brown wanted to play for Stanford and hoped to gain the attention of coach Mike Montgomery.

Montgomery eventually told him he wasn't athletic enough.

Fast-forward to the Zags' win over Stanford in the 1994 NIT: Brown owned the Cardinal, scoring 27 points, including three 3-pointers. "In retrospect, we probably made a mistake," Montgomery said.

Brown was asked if any of the latter-day Zags, among those who arrived with showy credentials, played with similar court characteristics; he answered with a name that many would understand if they had seen Brown play.

"Obviously, he's much better than I was, but (Drew) Timme had very good footwork and very good hand skills," Brown said. People at times also questioned Timme's athleticism.

Dudley agreed with Brown's pre-Timme assessment: "(Brown) couldn't rebound, he couldn't defend, but he was a lot like Timme in that way - incredibly crafty and inventive."

Timme became GU's all-time leading scorer and a second-team All-American, obviously playing against higher-quality opposition than Brown, but his senior scoring average of 21.2 was only slightly higher than Brown's 21.0.

Davis saw another comparison between Brown and Timme that some might overlook.

"The other thing that people don't know about Brownie, unless you really know him: He's the nicest guy on the planet, right?" Davis said. "But he's one of the biggest competitors there is. He'll kill you if he has to."

Smart, efficient, sneaky-tough, Brown so perfectly fit coach Dan Fitzgerald's attack. It was a beautiful match. Brown's old teammates kid that a valid life goal would be to find somebody who loves you the way Fitzgerald loved Brown.

Davis tells the story that one time he was hit on the back of the head by a misfired Brown pass. Fitzgerald pulled Davis from the game and chewed him out for Brown's mistake.

Brown played internationally for a few years and returned to Spokane in his mid-20s without a clear career path. As an Academic All-American and the National Scholar-Athlete of the year in 1994, he had many options.

"In a large part, I owe my career to Dudley taking a chance on me," Brown said.

His old teammate was in San Diego at the time, and gave Brown an entry to software sales. "No matter what Jeff did, he was going to be successful: he's smart, he's driven, likable," Dudley said. "But he had zero idea what software was."

As Dudley predicted, Brown caught on quickly. "I've been in technology the last 25 or 30 years, and I'm currently in the process of co-founding an AI company," Brown said.

Apparently having successfully won over his girlfriend with superior equestrian skills, Brown and his wife just celebrated their 26th anniversary. They have two sons.

And they're all huge Zag fans.

"Like anyone that played there, I feel like we all have a small part in building the foundation. I think my crew, in that early '90s era, were uber competitive, Type A personalities."

More specifically, Davis pinpoints the importance of Brown's contributions, which might be unrecognized by current GU fans.

"If Jeff Brown does not come to Gonzaga, they don't go to the NIT, they don't get (Matt) Santangelo, (Casey) Calvary, any of those guys," Davis said. "He's the one, singular guy you can point to."

Davis acknowledged the huge influences of Mark Few and staff along the way, and the great legacy of John Stockton in the early '80s, and, of course, the dozens of sensational players on the teams ever since. But ...

"I'd go to the mat on this, in terms of the true turning point of that program," Davis said. "I don't believe there's anyone bigger than Jeff Brown."

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