Josh Brown’s verbal commitment to Temple is done after the 2013 St. Anthony point guard and St. Anthony assistant coach Eric Harrield spoke again with Temple head coach Fran Dunphy Monday night.
“He verbally committed last night to Temple,” St. Anthony coach Bob Hurley told SNY.tv.
At 6-foot-2 and just a junior, Brown has a big upside going forward.
“He’s converting from being just an athlete, like a wing player,” said Hurley, coach of the reigning mythical national champs. “He’s been moved over to play the point and his on-the-job training began last April or so. In the first stage it’s gone very well. He has a good personality to be a point guard. He’s a very friendly kid. He’s a good talker. He plays extremely hard.
“He’s great going to the basket. He’s a great on-the-ball defender. He’s very, very athletic. He plays extremely hard. I think last year as a sophomore, he played as hard as anybody we had day in and day out.”
He added: “He has to get better at polishing his ball-handling, thinking like the guy running the team and improving his range on his shot.”
Dunphy attended several open workouts at St. Anthony this fall to watch Brown and fellow junior point guard Hallice Cooke.
“This speaks volumes to his work ethic and commitment,” Harrield said of Brown. “He has only been playing the point guard position since the spring and got the attention of a perennial Top 25 program.”
Brown’s commitment to Temple was first reported by Alex Kline of The Recruit Scoop.
“I always knew it was the place,” Brown told Kline. “I verballed to Temple because I love the coaching staff and I was born in Philly.”
Temple has done well in the New York/New Jersey area in recent weeks, getting singed NLI’s from 6-8 St. Raymond’s forward Daniel Dingle, 6-5 St. Joe’s wing Quenton DeCosey and 6-10 Devontae Watson, a center from Midland, Pa.
Brown becomes the third St. Anthony player committed to college, following UCLA-bound senior point guard Kyle Anderson and Hofstra signee Jimmy Hall, both of whom signed NLIs earlier this month.
Hurley said senior forward Jerome Frink had visited Manhattan and FIU, and was also hearing from Siena, Iona and Rider.
“I don’t think enough schools are recruiting Jerome Frink right now,” Hurley said. “I think a lot of the MAAC schools will come in right now.”
Hurley also expects senior guard Tariq Carey, a Newark native who transferred in from St. Benedict’s Prep, “absolutely to be a Division I player.”
