Prospect Intro: Eli Brown (2021)
Eli Brown is an off the radar name out of western Kentucky but he expects to make a large impact next season at Paducah Tilghman. Brown is a combo guard who only saw action in one varsity game last season but there will be plenty of opportunity for Brown to prove himself on a roster that loses 5 seniors and a lot of offensive firepower to graduation. I recently heard from Eli and we discussed his AAU season, some early recruiting interest and his goals for the future.
PHKY: Describe your game for people who may never have seen you play. What are your strengths? What do you need to improve?
EB: I play point guard or shooting guard. I’m a good shooter off the dribble or catch, good passing and vision, high IQ, hard worker. I Need to work on overall athleticism and size.
PHKY: Reflect on your high school season. Were you happy with your individual performance? Were you happy with your team results?
EB: I started and played well on both Freshman and JV averaging about 14-15 points a game, and about 3-4 assists, we didn’t keep a lot of exact stats. I dressed varsity, though we had a lot of seniors and juniors this year so I didn’t get much playing time, but that should change next year. All teams season went very well, but varsity came up short in the regional tournament.
PHKY: Who are you playing AAU with? What are your expectations for your AAU season both as an individual and as a team?
EB: I’m playing AAU with the Illinois Bears. My expectations are to lead the team to wins by doing whatever it takes. Some games I score a lot, some games I get a lot of assists, whatever it takes to win. I have averaged about 12-13 points a game so far, though we still have about 4-5 more tournaments. As a team, we’ve been doing pretty well, we placed 2nd in our first tournament, gotten second in one, and gone undefeated in multiple shootouts. Hopefully we can do well in the big NY2LA Next Level Invite in July, which is our biggest tournament of the year.
PHKY: What schools are recruiting you? Any offers? If you have offers, do you have a leader right now?
EB: I am not being heavily recruited by anybody yet, but have been invited to elite camps at Greenville University, Kentucky Christian, Holy Cross, Arkansas Tech and Queens College.
PHKY: What can you take from your AAU season and apply to your next high school season?
EB: In AAU, there is a lot more pressure on you handling the ball full court and half court, as I play against a lot of it, hopefully I can take my ball handling skills up a notch and bring it to Varsity next year. I will probably be playing a lot of point guard because of my size, and still bring my shooting, passing, and IQ with it.
PHKY: What are your goals for your next high school season?
EB: My goals for next high school season are to win districts and region to get to state. I believe people will doubt us because we lost a few valuable seniors (JJ Reed and Trey Workman the main two), but I think we can succeed as we still have a lot of talent. Hopefully I can contribute to this next year doing what I do and what it takes to win.
Brown should have ample opportunity to prove himself to Coach Roderick Thomas and his Tilghman teammates. Being the only freshman who dressed varsity last season, Eli has a leg up on the competition already. Look for Eli Brown to have a breakout sophomore season for Tilghman and put his name on the map as a player to track in the 2021 class.