Jerrance and Langston Driving Around

College basketball recruits usually come in the same shape and sizes.  They were high school stars before they shined on the AAU stage.  Then the coaches came calling, and off they went in search of greatness.

This is not that story.

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Ron Wilson was a star basketball player for the Villanova Wildcats in the mid 90’s.  A shot blocking, athletic center that could do it all.

“One time, in high school,” his son Langston said, “my dad blocked 17 shots in one game!’

Wilson was so good, life after college sent him Globe Trottering around the world.  But four open heart surgeries cut Wilson’s career short after he was diagnosed with Marfan Syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects connective tissues throughout the body.

“Dad never brought it up,” Langston said.  “He was a humble guy.  I never realized everything he went through.”

As Langston began to grow, all he wanted to do was play basketball, just like his father.  But the father’s health condition led to a gene connection that followed to his son.  When there were concerns about his cardio tests, and doctor’s hesitated.  

At Bonner Pendregast High School in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, all Langston could do was watch and cheer his high school friends on.  There was no basketball in his future.

“It was frustrating,” he said.  “I really wanted to play, but I knew I couldn’t.  I was the team manager.  All I could do was cheer.”

Without baskertball, Langston turned to music.  He can play a mean saxaphone.

In 2018, he was just another student, working on the side, when a friend of his was shot.  His family, conncerned about violence in the area, moved him to live with his sister in rural Georgia.

“I am down there,” he says, “and I literally have no place to go.  And then I get a medical clearance from the doctors that I can play basketball.  I head to some open gyms.  People notice me, and then I am off and running.”

When you are just a regular kid in town, but you are 6-9 and 210 pounds, and you are destroying everyone in the town gym, somebody will come calling.

Langston quickly enrolled at Georgia Highland Junior College and began to showcase his game.

It did not take long.  24/7 Sports ranked him as the number 2 juco recruit in the country, and the number 1 power forward.  He was labeled a 4-star recruit.

“I had about 50 offers coming out of Juco,” Langston said.

He would up choosing Alabama before switching to Washington.  Left behind were Memphis, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas A&M, Mississippi, Penn State, Maryland, and, oh yes, Kansas.

That meant he had to say no to Jerrance Howard.

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“Coach Howard is driving me around campus right now,” Langston told me over the phone.

“Get him some purple skittles and he will take you wherever you want to go,” I said.

Langston laughed, the laugh of a young man who has been given a second chance of pursuing his dream.

“The NBA,” he said.  “I need to find a home that can help me live out my dreams.”

Two years at Washington did not produce many results on the court. He played in 28 games as a sophmore, 18 last year as a junior.  He barely averged a couple of points and a couple of rebounds per game.  The handwriting was on the wall.

“I knew I needed to drop down a level to have a chance to showcase my skills and grow,” Langston said.

So into the portal he bounced, along with what will soon become 2,000 other players.  Murray State, Southern Miss and George Mason reached out to Langston early.  And then came a phone call from an old friend he once had to say no to.

“And now here I am in Carbondale,” he said.

I asked Langston what his decision was going to come down to.

“A gut feeling,” he said.  “I just want to enjoy my visit to Southern and the coaches.  God will guide me and give me a sign. He always does.  I trust God.  I am already a walking miracle.”

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We said good bye, and I thought to myself, here is a young man who wound up with 50 scholarship offers, from big time schools, having never played a minute of high school basketball.  How cool is that?  And I couldn’t help but thinking how much I know Saluki Nation would love to cheer for someone who has fought the battle Langston has.  

Enjoy your visit young man.  Your father must be incredibly proud.

He is Number One!

In August 2004, basketball tickets went on sale for Southern Illinois University. My father, a lifelong Saluki fan, had not been to the SIU Arena in far too many years. I was going to surprise him for Christmas with a road trip to Carbondale. I also decided to take my oldest son to his first real game since he was two years old and he was pretty sure that Grey Dog was going to eat him. I scanned the schedule and saw that the Salukis played Wichita State on Senior Day for Darren Brooks. This was the only choice! My father got to see his favorite player play in his last home game. Little did I know at the time just how big that game would be. 

We packed up the  SUV and headed south. The game, as we now know, was for the Missouri Valley Conference Championship. This would be the Salukis fourth straight title if they could win this game. After a quick lunch at The Mississippi Flyway, we excitedly headed off to the Arena. When we entered the building an hour before tip-off, we immediately heard the crowd. We walked in to our seats and the building is already 3/4th full. Again, it is an hour before tip-off. The Shockers are shooting around in the pre-game. Every time Jamar Howard touched the ball a chant of Howard rolled through the Arena. The electricity in the building was unmatched. The roar from 9,628 fans when #1 was announced for the final time was ear-ringing!

Darren Brooks then did what Darren Brooks always did. He won a Missouri Valley title for the fourth straight time. At one point, Brooks would pop his jersey and slap the floor to fire up the sold-out building. The loudest SIU chant these ears have ever heard soon followed. The Salukis pulled away and the starters were pulled out of the game. The deafening roar when Brooks was removed was aided when LaMar Owen took off his Saluki jersey and ran into the student section to start the party. I looked over and saw the tear in the corner of my father’s eye. The court storm began as the horn sounded. His favorite Saluki going out a champion! 

Darren Brooks was a lightly recruited player out of Jennings High School in St. Louis. He did not play a lot of AAU ball and was not known well. He had offers from some MVC schools, Arkansas-Pine Bluff and an offer to come work out for SLU. He did, however, have a Division II offer for football from Culver Stockton. Also, he had an offer to walk on at Iowa and Wisconsin to play football. Additionally, Brooks had offers from the Atlanta Braves and the Arizona Diamondbacks to play baseball.  He was recruited by Matt Painter to come to Southern Illinois. Already friends with Josh Warren and Stetson Hairston, and after meeting Jermain Dearman, Kent Williams and Sylvester Willis, Darren knew he could win at SIU and win big. 

After redshirting his first year at SIU Darren would finally get his chance. His freshman year he would average nine points coming off the SIU bench. He scored 16 points in an NCAA tournament upset of Bobby Knight and Texas Tech.

Brooks fully arrived during his sophomore year. Darren would lead the MVC in steals and earn his first of three all-defense team awards. Darren also earned the league’s most improved player in his second year.  Brooks led the team in minutes played, assists and steals. His 62 steals were the second most in SIU history. He finished second on the team in rebounding and blocked shots. In a game against Drake he recorded a school-record eight steals.

As a junior, he was the best player in the Missouri Valley Conference. He would win the MVC Larry Bird Player of the Year, the MVC defensive player of the year, and was an AP Honorable Mention All-American. 

He completed his final season at SIU as the only player ever to win the Larry Bird Player of the Year and the defensive player of the year twice. Darren never finished worse than 1st in the Missouri Valley Conference. He was on four straight championship teams. Darren played in the NCAA tournament four times and played in an NCAA Sweeet  16. He holds the school record for steals and is in the top-ten in scoring. In his final season he led the team in scoring, rebounding, assists and steals and broke the program’s single season records for steals with 70 and assists with 150.

Longtime SIU play-by-play announcer, Mike Reis, said that Darren was the best all-around player he had ever seen at Southern Illinois.  Brooks shares an elite podium with another Valley elite, Bradley’s Hersey Hawkins, as the only two players in Valley history to compile at least 1,500 points, 600 rebounds, 400 assists and 250 steals.

Darren’s career ended in the second round of the NCAA tournament when the seventh-seeded Salukis lost to second-seeded Oklahoma State. Brooks ended a storybook career playing in more games in a Saluki uniform than any other player in school history. Additionally, he is one of the most decorated men’s basketball players in Missouri Valley Conference history.

I admit that I was a bit nervous going in to my conversation with Darren. I’m no Bobber and this was a big one! Five seconds in to the conversation my worries were gone. Darren is a Saluki and we talked like we had done it many times. His first words were thanking all the Saluki fans for all the support throughout the years. From his heart, he said, “thank you to you all!”  Once a Saluki, always a Saluki.

I asked Darren, why SIU when you had all of these options? 

Darren told me the other offers were great. He did not want to walk on. He wanted a degree and he wanted to graduate college debt-free. He knew he could win at SIU . He said his plans at SIU were to play basketball and baseball. Actually, baseball was his favorite sport. In Darren’s words he was, “bamboozled by Saluki Head Coach Bruce Weber”. Bruce put a stop to the baseball dream in year one.

About Bruce Weber

“He came to talk to the girls’ high school team I coach at University City High School,” he said. Bruce is the best person you will ever meet. Well prepared and a great coach.” 

In true Darren Brooks fashion the team had their best season in 16 years. 

I add a question from Saluki-Insider. What made you so good at defense? What was your thought process?

“I just wanted to win more than everybody else. I wanted my team to win. I wanted to make life hard for whomever I was guarding,” said Brooks.

He credited his middle school PE teacher for unlocking the gym and letting him work. He watched film and saw things happen before they did. It was effort, study and determination. 

A Sports Illustrated cover pictured Brooks as one the guys who could stop Illinois’ Brown.

“It was just cool to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated,” Brooks humbly stated.

“Not many people can say that. I was always the underdog and was never given much of a chance. I worked hard and want to thank God for everything. It was an honor to be there.” 

What are you feelings on the current transfer portal situation?

“I have mixed feelings as it’s good and bad,” said Brooks. “I like that the kids can make money. I feel it really hurts the kids in development and it hurts them when they can just run away from adversity. I agree with the one free transfer but that’s it unless there is a coaching change.”

It’s time for the question. Pags or Quatro’s?

“I like them both but I’m a deep dish guy. It’s Quatro’s,” mused Brooks.

Who was your biggest rival?

“Creighton,  and then Creighton,” said Brooks without hesitation.

What is Darren Brooks doing now?

“I am just spending time with my family, my wife and four daughters. Church and coaching. Life is good!”

I wanted to close with his thoughts on the fans the SIU Arena and all the success at home. 

“Amazing. The 6th man. We felt invincible at home and he crowd gave us the extra fight. There’s no place else like it,” Brooks said proudly. “Saluki fans are the best. And I do remember that senior day game. It was unbelievable and so humbling.   I loved my time at SIU and I thank God for it.” 

The drive home from Carbondale was one of high spirits. What a game, what a career! Darren Brooks is in the SIU Hall of Fame and the Missouri Valley Conference Hall of Fame. His career at SIU stands out among a long tradition of great players. The Salukis would lose in the second-round of the NCAA Tournament to Oklahoma State to end Darren’s college career. 

It is time to retire #1 at the Banterra Center. Darren Brooks deserves that honor. I do not know what the criteria is for the process but Darren meets it. One of, if not the greatest Salukis of all time.  Darren was a standout on and off the court for four years. This should be a no-brainer decision and is long past due. 

Join us over in the Saluki Insider forum to discuss your favorite Darren Brooks moments with other Saluki fans!

Darren Brooks photo is courtesy of Mike Kern and the Missouri Valley Conference

Bobber vs. Leonard

I looked through the list of questions everyone submitted.  I needed a good one. I looked and looked and looked.

“You’re gonna get me in serious trouble here,” Saluki Athletic Director Tim Leonard winced when I asked him the question.

“Look,” I told him, “this is not some softball interview.  I need an answer, and I need it now.”

There was a long pause, and then Leonard came clean.

“Okay, okay” he said.  “I had Quatros last night.  But I eat at Pags all the time.  Damn, I eat too much pizza.”

I laughed.

“You could be a politician if the Athletic Director thing doesn’t work out.”

For Leonard, still new on the job after being hired in July, it has worked out well so far. He came to Southern after an eight-year run at Towson.  Stability would be a nice change for the Salukis, who are now on their fifth Athletic Director in those same eight years.

“It is the nature of the beast,” Leonard said. “Higher education in general is going through a correction.  The state of Illinois has been hit especially hard, and the worst is yet to come.  Student enrollment is down at all Illinois schools.  That means revenues are down, and sometimes that affects expectations.  Southern has also gone through a number of chancellors in recent years.  We have been in a flux for a number of years. We are stable now.  We are building a staff.  We need to go from survival mode into attack mode.  I am hoping I will be here for a while.”  

I told Leonard I had a few questions from Saluki Insider members.  That would normally send a chill down any man’s spine.

“Let’s go,” he said. “Bring it on!”

I looked through the list of questions everyone submitted.  I needed a good one. I looked and looked and looked.

“Give me a minute,” I said. “Okay, I finally found one.  Where are we competitively on the NIL?”

“I see your members know their stuff,” Leonard laughed.  “We have started an NIL for both men’s basketball and football.”

“Is that men’s football?” I asked.

“Are you really a professional journalist?” Leonard wondered.

“Not anymore!” I gleefully added.  “But I am an AARP member.  Free jello squares at any restaurant in America.  Now what about the NIL?”

“There is some money in there,” Leonard said.  “But not a ton.  We are going to have to get creative.  There is only so much we can do as an institution.  I think we will be competitive within the Valley.  I just don’t know how much that will affect recruiting, as basically everybody is going to be bumping up a level.”

“Just make sure we are as competitive as Bradley,” I said.  “I have to report back to Barkeep.”

“Barkeep?” Leonard asked.  “What is a Barkeep?”

“Trust me,” I said.  “You don’t want to know.  Let me find another good member question.”

This took a while.

“I need to go to bed before midnight,” Leonard joked.

“Here, I have one,” I said.  “What about conference realignment?  Anything happening there down the road for Southern?”

“I don’t really have a feel for that yet,” Leonard said.  “But I love the Valley.  I love the style.  Every game is a freaking battle.  I mean a battle.  I love the regionality of the league.  I don’t know where else that Southern would go that would make more sense than the Valley.  I don’t know why we would want to play a league game on the east or west coast.  Look at the programs that have left the Valley.  I am not sure it has worked out for them.  But predicting the future is always hard to tell.”

I then reminded Leonard that the Bobber, alone, when things looked their darkest, predicted that his Salukis would go to Northwestern and take care of business.  I could provide stock tips if necessary……

“Pass,” said Leonard.

“Let’s talk about coaches,” I said.  “After we win a few national championships, how do we keep Nick and Brian around?  Quatros gift cards?”

“You have to be careful there,” Leonard said.  “You don’t want to be coach rich and cash poor, or worse, coach poor and cash rich.  You have to let your coaches know that you are committed to them.  Then you have to figure out how you can reward them.  We are always trying to figure that out.”

“So,” I said.  “After we win those national titles, and Nick leaves for Notre Dame, or Bryan leaves for Duke, are you one of those athletic directors who walks around with an index card with names on it in your pocket?”

“Absolutely, I am,” Leonard said.  “I do that every year.  You have to, because if that time comes, you have to move quickly.  It is really no different than any other job search.  There is a small window when that market opens up, and you have to get your guy.”

I reminded Leonard that after Chris Lowery was fired, Southern conducted a nationwide search committee for its next basketball coach.  Many people from Southern were involved.  Airplanes were in the air.  Coaches around the country were contacted.  That brought us Barry Hinson.  Is that how Leonard would do business?

“I don’t know what the university policy is,” Leonard said.  “But ideally, I would like it to be me with a smaller group.  Me, the Chancellor, and a couple of others.  Because at the end of the day if that coach doesn’t work out, the Athletic Director is going to take the fall, not some search committee.”  

I asked Leonard if he ever remembered watching Mullins play for the Salukis.

“I was always a big fan of the Valley,” he said.  “I was always watching them on tv.”

“While you were eating pizza?” I asked.

“Probably.  But yes, I remember him a bit.  And let me tell you, I have never seen anybody who has his style.  He is a different type of coach than I have ever been around. There is never any bad body language with him. He is so analytical, and his kids have all bought in.  Brian is really doing an excellent job.”

I wanted to turn the subject to football.

“One of our Saluki Insiders actually had a good question,” I told him.

“Really?” he said.  

“Yes.  They asked about a possible indoor practice facility.”

“Well, tell them that we are working with a consultant on that right now.  It is the same architect who helped design Saluki Way.  We have a master plan.  We have met with coaches for their input.  We need that facility really bad.  We have teams that are now using the Rec Center, and that is not ideal.  All of our teams need this.  It is hard to say when it might get done.  It will move up to our top priority.  We need to get a price range, and then we need to go to donors, because it will need to be donor driven.  So maybe you can get out your checkbook, Bob?”

“Yeah, about that……”

“Let’s talk some football,” I said, desperately trying to change the subject.  “Any thoughts after your first fall on how we can improve attendance?”

“It’s funny and frustrating,” Leonard said.  “We basically have a three-game schedule.  Opening day,  family weekend, and homecoming.  And then it plummets.  I was not prepared for how dramatic a drop off that was.”

“Deer season,” I said.

“Well, we have to build tradition.  We have to get to the playoffs consistently.  People need to understand that we are an FCS power.”

“Yeah, but Carterville also plays on Saturday,” I reminded him. “How can we possibly compete with that?”

“I would like to change some seating options in the horseshoe,” Leonard said.  “Maybe some table tops, beer gardens. that kind of thing.  Our home side attendance is okay, but this is not high school, where the other side of the stadium is empty.  We need to make it a destination too. We need to ask ourselves what things will draw people to buy season tickets, and then sit over there.  We need some sort of special areas over there.”

“I agree,” I told him.  “But Hungarian Partridge season begins in early November….”

“We need to try to simulate what we are doing with basketball, and be more aggressive on single game promotions.  We need to make it fun.  We have to do more stuff, like the 7-up can opener.  For some fans, it’s not just the game.  We don’t have the fan base sitting right here.  It is a series of small towns throughout the area that we have to bring in.  If someone has an idea, please contact us.  I would love to hear them.”

The Bobber loves those FBS road trips.  I asked Leonard what I could plan on going forward.

“It’s funny,” he said. “It’s all about finding schedules that match.  There is literally one guy in the country that helps schools match up with their scheduling needs.  We will always be open and looking.  I never want to play more than one per year, and I would rather play a team with a wide-open offense as opposed to a power game.  We have to stay healthy for the season.  Have you timed your drive yet to BYU Bob?”

“I am too afraid to look,” I said.

“20 hours!”

“Okay, well there is that,” I said.  “And when we make the playoffs next year, are we bidding to host?”

“Yes, we will bid,” Leonard said.  “We would have bid this year.  But I am not in the mindset that we can buy our way in every year.  In fact, I am not sure I want to host on that first round.  It’s Thanksgiving, and the stadium will be empty.”

“You have rabbits, foxes, squirrels and crows still out there……..”

“I would almost rather be on the road if it is an empty stadium everywhere that weekend,” Leonard said.  “Let the home team be depressed.”

Finally, it was time to go.  But I had one last question for Leonard.

“Do you ever read Saluki Insider?”

There was a long laugh.

“No, I never read message boards.  It’s not that I don’t think there is good discussion.  But you get on there, and you can get obsessed.  I would be on there at work and then at home.  I think they are fun, and there are certainly some good ideas.  But I can’t let myself make decisions on those comments.  I have to make decisions based on facts.”

“Yeah, I said, ” but what about Mr. Woodcock, and Fraydog, Skinny Uncle and Frog…….”

“Exactly,” Leonard said.

We at Saluki Insider are immensely grateful for Tim Leonard’s time and willingness to grant this interview request. We also appreciate The Bobber taking time from his busy schedule to brighten our day with his unique and entertaining style.

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