March is synonymous with moment. "One Shining Moment," in particular. Just weeks after the United States was gripped with Super Bowl fever and hit with the Winter Olympics bug, the most contagious sporting event on the calendar takes hold: March Madness.
Among both men and women in the NCAA's three divisions are conference tournaments that help shape the college organization’s grandest events; single-game elimination tournaments that help determine national champions of the amateur world. These weekends are defined by Cinderellas and Pumpkins, Davids versus Goliaths, individual excellence and team scrappiness. Moments that could never be forgotten by fans and television partners, of course, but undoubtedly etched in the memories of the players themselves.
The "Madness" comes from the revelry of the moment; the mascot who may be as tanked as the students, the boosters' dagger eyes hovering over head coaches and athletic directors, middle-aged alums trying to recapture their youth and Gus Johnson being... Gus Johnson. Throughout it all, we celebrate the careers that end when the clock hit 00:00. At the same time, we know so little of the journey to the end for those players.
Many a ballyhooed college star ended up becoming the answers to many "whatever happened to" questions after falling short of the pros. However, there are plenty of former college ballers who faded into the background quietly, but happily such as Grand Rapids, Michigan native Rodney Brown.
Like many players before and after him, Brown had professional aspirations. He played for the West Coast Conference's Santa Clara Broncos from 1986-1990. In his four years, the program made an appearance in the NCAA Tournament in his freshman season followed by back-to-back NIT bids.
"I viewed myself as a 'basketball player' for real, not someone who just 'played basketball,'" says Brown of his roundball upbringing in Michigan. "I had over 20 Division I scholarship offers from colleges all over the country and chose Santa Clara University because of its competitive basketball program, its high academic standards, and I wanted to go to college in California."
If Santa Clara rings a bell for most of you, it's mostly because the county encompasses the famed Silicon Valley. Yet, for hoops fans, the University's fame comes from current Minnesota Timberwolves head coach and former Los Angeles Laker Kurt Rambis. Also, there was some Canadian guy named Steve Nash.
Walking on to campus, Brown figured that he was going to make a pretty good name for himself; someone that professional scouts - NBA and other significant pro leagues around the world - would see his game. Certainly, he never planned on skating by just talent alone.
When asked about his overall plan in those days, Brown recalls, "I anticipated that I would be one of the better players on the team and that my hard work and dedication would insure that I was on the court and contributing. I figured that I would play some as a freshman, more as a sophomore and by my junior and senior year, be one of the best basketball players in the country."
However, as we all learn and relearn from time to time, life doesn't always go as planned as Brown didn't get to play until his senior year. Why? Quite frankly, Brown said there were just better players.
"There were other players that entered my school with credentials and talent that were better than mine and for different reasons I was not able to get on the court," he says.
"I just simply did not get the opportunity to play enough in college thus my game did not develop to the point where I would have been able to play professionally," says the former guard. "After all of the hard work and sacrifices I made as a scholarship athlete did not produce the athletic results I desired, I just didn't care anymore about competing professionally as a basketball player."
That very reality doesn't come right away. It's more commonplace in college athletics now to hear about student-athletes transferring schools because they feel that their progressions are hindered by riding the pine (along with scandals, coaching carousels and personal travails). In the late eighties and early nineties, however, that didn't happen as often. Typically, these players would stay in their schools, impatiently waiting for a chance to walk to the scorer's table to get in the game.
In some cases, there could have been some acrimony; between the starters and the first guys off the bench; between coaches and players would dazzle in practice instead of the game; even between the team's future pro and the future assistant coaches.
That wasn't the case for Brown.
"There was never any jealousy from me in regards to those players that had opportunities to play professionally. I always encouraged my teammates to pursue their dreams and if being a pro player was their dream I was one of their biggest cheerleaders."
This, of course, is Brown's nature and it translated well in his future. Despite getting that precious playing time as a senior, he prepared for his basketball career to end. While the concept of student-athlete seems laughable in this era of college basketball, it was one he didn't take lightly. It was one he reflected on after the final buzzer in 1990.
"I graduated in 4 years and was very proud that I stuck it out and didn't quit even though the challenges and demands of being a college scholarship athlete were very tough for me personally."
At the end of his last game, all the highs and lows of his competitive athletic life came to a relieving end.
"I wanted to win that last game and gave my all towards the effort because I wanted our team to advance on in our tournament and keep playing, but when the final buzzer sounded; I left it all behind with no regrets."
Maybe there are still wonders of how far he could have gone, but in his current life as a high school administrator, he realizes that his college career opened many doors. He spoke about out being a college athlete provided him leadership skills that translated into a plethora of experiences; an adjunct professor of political science, a candidate for public office, a community organizer and a non-profit executive for the Urban League.
On top of all that, Rodney Brown still loves basketball, enough to tutor kids on the game's finer points. Yet, it's hard to not imagine a personal sense of pride when people ask him about the Broncos' most famous alum.
"Although Steve Nash entered Santa Clara two years after I left, I played pick-up basketball with him at [the University]. And, all the things that Steve does now, he was doing as a freshman!"
[Jason is a staff sportswriter for the New York Beacon, an African-American weekly in New York City. He is also the schizophrenic mind behind a Sports Scribe. Follow him on Twitter to glimpse the rapid-fire method to his madness. To read more by Jason, check out his profile.]
Copyright, all rights reserved. Photo: Thomas Hawk (Flickr). Print this page.