Brown's friendship with Alyssa McDonough (right) is part of the story how she ended up at FDU-Florham. Photo by Jeffrey Levy, d3photography.com

By Gordon Mann
D3sports.com

MADISON, N.J. -- In the summer of 2012, FDU-Florham head coach Marc Mitchell went to an AAU basketball game somewhere in New Jersey to watch a point guard he was recruiting, Alyssa McDonough.  While he was watching McDonough, he noticed a forward named Shalette Brown. Mitchell asked Brown if she had plans for college, hoping she was a rising senior in high school, like McDonough.

Brown was a year ahead of McDonough in school and she was playing in her last AAU tournament. She told Mitchell that she had already committed to Montclair State. She had offers from some Division I and II schools, but picked Karin Harvey's program. Brown explains, "They were the most consistent with calling, emailing and everything" during the recruiting process.

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Mitchell wished Brown well and continued to pursue McDonough, going to 14 of her games her senior year.  Brown, who attended many of those games since she is friends with McDonough, was enjoying her time at Montclair State where she was playing with fellow Franklin Township High school grad Taylor Jeffers. Brown started all 30 games for Montclair State and averaged 10.5 points and 7 rebounds, on her way to being named the NJAC and Atlantic Region Rookie of the year. She was part of the Redhawks' strong front court that propelled the team undefeated through the regular season and into the NCAA tournament.

Mitchell's persistent pursuit of McDonough was rewarded in April 2013 when she committed to attend FDU-Florham, where she is now the back-up point guard.

But McDonough’s mother had other news – Shalette Brown, who had just completed a successful freshman year at Montclair State, was thinking about transferring.  As Brown explains, she enjoyed playing basketball at Montclair, but "for me it was about the academics and being a student athlete."  She wasn't able to get into the communications major right away at Montclair and didn't want to extend her college career another year.  So she looked at transferring to FDU-Florham.

Mitchell thought McDonough's news interesting but, by NCAA rules, he couldn’t talk to a player at another school without the player first providing a release form indicating interest in transferring. Later that month Brown and her mother appeared at his office with a signed release form.  Brown worked through the transfer process and matriculated at FDU-Florham last fall.

Fast forward seven months and Brown has become the final piece in Coach Marc Mitchell’s efforts to take the FDU-Florham to the 2014 national semifinals this weekend in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. As Rob Knox described in Around the Region earlier this year, that plan started to come together when he and Assistant Coach Jessica Covaco found the Dayon sisters, All American Kyra and twin Kara, at another AAU tournament a few years ago.

In that same recruiting class, Mitchell found Delisha Thompson and Leigh-Ann Lively who give the Devils depth. Thompson is the first forward off the bench for Mitchell, especially when her teammates get in early foul trouble, as happened in both games last weekend.  Lively brings the outside shooting the Devils need in their half court offense to break zones and create space for her teammates. 

That space allows Kyra Dayon to knife to the basket for layups or short jumpers. If Dayon happens to miss, she usually has a wave of teammates flying in behind her to grab rebounds and score second chance points. Brown is one of those players.

“I can honestly say, without [Brown], we would be really good,” Mitchell explains.  “With her, I think we are great.  She brings a certain toughness to an already tough team.  She brings a tenacity to rebound the basketball.  You don’t win championships without rebounding.”  Brown is strong enough to take rebounds away from off-balance opponents and athletic enough to convert those rebounds into points.

As luck would have it, FDU-Florham hosted Shalette Brown’s former team, Montclair State. in the sectional finals on Saturday night with Brown starting in the front court against her former teammates. She says playing her former teammates made the experience more fun her, especially since she knew the Redhawks' tendencies and they knew hers.

The Devils trailed Montclair State 30-24 at the half. Brown grabbed seven rebounds in the first half, but ended it by getting knocked down and hitting the back of her head on the court. The Montclair player involved in the play lingered to see if her former teammate was okay.

FDU-Florham senior point guard Jalessa Lewis says she wasn’t concerned. “Shalette’s amazing. I love my teammate. I knew that when she fell, she was going to bounce back, just like everyone else does on the team, so I wasn’t worried at all.”

Brown has 49 rebounds in FDU-Florham's four NCAA tournament games. Photo by Jeffrey Levy, d3photography.com

Montclair State started the second half where they left off. Nicosia Henry hit a three-pointer in the opening minute to put the Redhawks up eight. But on FDU-Florham’s ensuing possession, Kara Dayon found Brown for a baseline jumper. Kyra Dayon followed with a layup and, a minute later, Brown stole the ball from Montclair State’s All-American Melissa Tobie and scored. After Montclair State missed its next shot, Brown grabbed the rebound and Kyra Dayon hit a jumper at the other end to tie the game. The Redhawks’ momentum and lead were gone for good.

FDU-Florham scored four more points to take the lead, 37-33. As Montclair State split four free throws, Kyra Dayon scored four more of her game-high 22 points. Brown followed with a layup and then another midrange jumper to push the lead to double digits. The Redhawks missed a three, Brown grabbed the rebound and Lewis buried a three-pointer to put FDU-Florham up 13 and effectively put the game out of reach.  By the time Montclair State scored its second field goal of the second half, there were less than nine minutes left and the Devils had firm control of the game.  FDU-Florham finished the victory, 73-53, with Shalette Brown fittingly scoring the Devils’ last three points, giving her 17 to go with 17 rebounds.

After the game, Mitchell reflected on his teams’ rise from middle-of-the-pack to top of the region.  “I know it’s a short time, a five year period. However we know what it takes to win championships. And we knew from the summer, I’d say about June, that we were going to be good. We just had to figure out if we were going to be great or not. We’ll find out if we’re great or not the next couple games.”

When those games are over, Mitchell will head back out on the recruiting trail. FDU-Florham will be loaded again next year but seven players, including the Dayon sisters, will be finishing their college basketball career at this time next year.  For now, those juniors and Brown have FDU-Florham sitting as the last undefeated team in Division III basketball. 

They’ve also changed Mitchell’s pitch to future recruits.  He doesn’t have to sell them on building a legacy, as he did when he recruited Kyra and Kara Dayon.  Now he tells them, “If you come here, you have standards. We don’t lose here. Losing is not an option anymore.”