Marc Brown has been at the
center of New Jersey City's turnaround this season. And has father
hasn't been far from it all. Photo for NJCU athletics by Richard Formica, Creative Focus |
These days it’s Charlie Brown giving advice, not Lucy van Pelt. And he doesn’t even charge 5 cents for it.
When New Jersey City started the season 2-7 overall and 0-6 in the New Jersey Athletic Conference, coach Marc Brown thought the season was lost. It was the first time NJCU was 2-7 after nine game since the 1968-69 season. But his father, who coached at NJCU for 25 years didn’t think so.
Going into this season, Brown knew his team lacked experience. Last season NJCU got off to a hot start, going 9-1 in their first ten games. But no starters from last season’s 17-8 team returned. Last year’s NJAC Defensive Player of the Year Keith Williams graduated, leading scorer Kaihrique Irick did not return, and senior Walik Albright broke his jaw before the season, and was ruled out for the 2012-2013 season.
“My dad is always optimistic. He saw the potential in this team. He probably saw it a little more than I did, to be perfectly honest,” Brown said.
Brown and his father speak on a daily basis. Win or lose, it doesn’t matter. Charlie attends every game. He is an unofficial assistant coach.
During home games, Brown doesn’t even have to look into the stands. “I’m constantly reminded of him because our bench is right in front of his name,” Brown said.
Brown leans on his father for advice all the time, and he has continued a winning tradition at NJCU by implementing the extremely effective Brown defense.
“We press a lot. We play a lot of people. I have 12 guys on my roster, and all 12 of them play,” Brown said.
After Monday’s game at TCNJ, Brown talked to his real assistant coach, Chris Brown (no relation to Marc, Charlie or the singer), and they realized 11 of the 12 played double digit minutes.
NJCU’s goal is to put constant pressure on the opposing team’s guards and have them start their offensive sets with a little less time on the clock.
“That’s what has worked for me as a coach, and that’s what worked for my dad. He was here for 25 years, he played the same style, that’s what has worked for us at NJCU,” Brown said.
But it wasn’t working early in the season, and they weren’t scoring. After a 69-64 loss to the defending NJAC champion William Paterson on Jan. 5, in a game NJCU led by 10 points with nine minutes to go, NJCU hit rock bottom.
A school worst 0-7 in the NJAC.
“Surprisingly the morale was still pretty high. I had a bunch of new guys that didn’t have a clue of what was going on,” Brown said.
The team continued to work hard in practice, and as each game passed the players started understanding more what the NJCU style of play meant. “It’s just game experience, there is no substitute for that,” Brown said.
Things really started to turn around when freshman Rondre Kelly joined the team midseason. Kelly doesn’t start, but since becoming the team’s sixth man, the Gothic Knights are 9-2.
“When Rondre came in and joined us second semester, at Rutgers-Camden, it was really one of our first games after the break. And we played well, we have kind of taken off since then. We picked up what we were trying to teach early in the season, the guys have followed the blue print, and we’ve been winning games,” Brown said.
Leading the defensive effort was NJCU’s leading scorer Khalid Muhammad, a true freshman, who is carried the Gothic Knights. The 6-3, 205-pound freshman, is a six-time NJAC Rookie of the Week winner, and is a favorite for NJAC Rookie of the Year honors.
Muhammad averaged 14.8 points per game and also led the team in rebounding in the regular season, with 5.1 rebounds per game.
“I am real impressed with this kid,” Brown said. He really was someone we thought we had a special player when we recruited him, but I had no idea he was this good.”
Brown will look to address scoring in future recruiting classes, by bringing in players who can “put the ball in the basket.”
But for now, NJCU is on a roll with a young team that plays hard. NJCU finished the season, winning seven consecutive games, and defeated three playoff teams along the way.
The streak started on January 23 when Khalid Muhammad hit a game-winner running jumper at the buzzer to beat Rutgers-Newark in Jersey City, 51-50. That sparked the run that has included big wins over rivals Richard Stockton, William Paterson, Kean, and. Montclair. NJCU clinched the final berth in the NJAC Tournament on February 11 with a 65-53 win at The College of New Jersey.
Brown’s teams have posted four of the six lowest known scoring defenses in the 80-year history of the program. His 2009-10 team has the fifth lowest scoring defense (62.6) and the NJAC championship team of 2010-11 allowed just 63.0 per game (sixth lowest).
And in Wednesday’s 62-33 win over Rutgers-Camden they set their school record for holding opponents to just 57.9 points per game.
The Gothic Knights peaked at the right time. “The hottest team, the team that’s playing well has a shot. Two years ago we won a title in a very similar situation. We started off slow. We were underachieving early, and we put it together and wound up winning the whole thing.
“We are not satisfied with just getting to the playoffs,” Brown said. They’d like to repeat what they did two years ago, and win their 13th NJAC crown.
NJCU will open play in the NJAC quarterfinals on Saturday, Feb. 16 at 2 p.m. when the No. 6 seeded Gothic Knights head to Galloway, N.J for a matchup with third-seeded Richard Stockton..