Brooks pushes Ducks to new level
It was always obvious that Dill on Brooks had t he physical gifts to become an elite basketball player.
The only question was whether he would keep his emotions under enough control to get there.
As a youth, Brooks showed an uncommon passion for the game, but at times was too amped up and emotional for his own good.
“He was described to me as a high-energy level player. He just had a lot of intensity, a lot of energy,” Paul Melnik told Postmedia on Wednesday.
Melnik, the head coach at Father Henry Carr, a Toronto- area Catholic high school with a powerhouse basketball program, coached Brooks for three years.
Nowadays, Brooks, who hails from Mississauga, is preparing f or the NCAA tournament. His Oregon Ducks are one of four No. 1 seeds and are one of the favourites to cut down the nets in Houston in just over two weeks.
The versatile forward leads the Duck sin scoring (16.8 points per game) and assists ( 3.1) and ranks second in rebounding ( 7.6) and steals (1.2).
It’s safe to say he figured everything out. Constant improvement through a tireless work ethic have paid off, according to Melnik and Tony McIntyre, the co-founder of the CIA Bounce AAU team that counts more than half of the 21 Canadian players at this year’s NCAA tournament as alumni.
Brooks was unavailable for comment because Oregon has barred all interviews during finals week.
McIntyre first laid eyes on Brooks when the 20-year-old was a sixth- grader, but said Brooks really didn’t start to figure it all out until his second year of high school.
“You could really see him turn the corner,” said McIntyre, now the director of basketball operations at Athlete Institute in Orangeville, the school Kentucky phenom Jamal Murray attended.
Brooks would go on to nearly lead Melnik and the school to an Ontario championship, missing a tough, potential game-winner.
Then he headed off to Findlay Prep in Henderson, Nev. where he surprisingly didn’t get a ton of playing time.
McIntyre says that might have actually helped Brooks in the long run.
“He uses some of that stuff as motivation, to take it out on people,” McIntyre said.
And today, Brooks actual- ly uses his passion and intensity to be even more productive. It was evident when he led Canada to a silver medal, averaging 25.2 points at the FIBA Americas U18 tournament a couple of years ago and when he suited up as the youngest player other than Murray for Canada’s Pan Am Games this past summer. It has continued into this breakout campaign.
“Every year he just got better and better in every way,” Melnik said.
“He grew, he got stronger, he got more athletic, his skill developed, but I think the telling ingredient was he was able to control his emotions and grow.”
Oregon, a team also led by another standout Canadian, Montreal’s Chris Boucher, starts its quest on Friday in Spokane, Wash., against Holy Cross, which edged Southern 59- 55 in a First Four play- in game on Wednesday night.