Wofford's Derrick Brooks delivers after sit-down with Mike Young
Behind closed doors, half a dozen games into this basketball season, Wofford head coach Mike Young had what he called a contentious meeting with player Derrick Brooks.
“Contentious? Oh, it was that,” Brooks said with a smile. “Yes, it was.”
The conversation was prickly for both. Neither wanted to have it. Brooks didn’t want to tell one of the best coaches in the country that he wasn’t using his players properly. Young didn’t want to hear any complaints from his only senior about lack of playing time.
“He initiated it. And it was not real comfortable,” Young said. “He was not real happy with me and I was not real happy with him.”
Brooks, a 6-foot-3 natural point guard who went to Bartow High School in Florida, never made the impact he expected in his first three seasons. He got stuck behind all-time great Eric Garcia, who was one year younger, and averaged just 10 minutes and 2.5 points per game.
“I will say honestly that I played with the idea of leaving,” Brooks said. “My father told me, ‘No, you need to stay.’ And it was the best decision. It taught me how to grow as a human, to get through adversity and bounce back from it. …I know I don’t have much time left here. I needed to do something to have somewhat of the career that I wanted to have. Things didn’t go the way I had planned and there is nothing I can do about that. But what I can do now is help this team win a championship.”
This season, Brooks was behind two more underclassmen, freshman Storm Murphy and sophomore Donovan Theme-Love, at that position. During a four-game span, Brooks had a high of nine minutes against Bob Jones University and a total of seven minutes combined against real threats North Florida and currently No. 14 Texas Tech. He decided to have another talk with Young, who was expecting the same angle Brooks brought when he was a sophomore.
“Just like back then, it was something that was really heavy on my mind and my heart,” Brooks said. “I wouldn’t say I was too angry last time. I would say I was too selfish. When I came to him this time, it was just about helping the team and not just playing more. …It was about defense. I felt like I could guard the other team’s best player and do a great job at it. And I felt like our team needed more rebounding from the guard position. We couldn’t rely on our bigs to do it all for us. I just felt like I was the person to do all that.
“The conversation didn’t start off all that great. He listened to me, but I thought he had made up his mind about what he was going to say to me. At least that’s how I felt. When he said he would take a look at it, I knew I needed him to see that it was actually true.”
Brooks, playing mostly as a wing and not at the point, was a key defender in the home victory against Georgia Tech. He then made his first collegiate start against Johnson & Wales. Maybe that was somewhat of a token gesture. But he started the next game, too, against High Point, played 27 minutes and had a career-high nine rebounds, more than doubling his previous best.
“I had told him I would look at it and give him an honest evaluation,” Young said. “He’s earned that. He’s a senior. He’s been a great person within this program and a great citizen on our campus. He told me, ‘If you are who you say you are, and that we value defense and rebounding, you will let me help. You’re not giving me an opportunity to do that.’ I thought, ‘You know, he may be right.’ He brought what he said he would bring. He brought a level of toughness. He has given us a guy who will guard their best perimeter player. Then you can mix and match after that. He’s going to help us win. By and large, he has helped flip our season.”
Wofford has won 12 of its past 13 games, 11 of 12 with Brooks in the starting lineup, and that includes a monumental victory at defending national champion North Carolina. He had an offensive rebound and went to the foul line with 7.8 seconds left to beat Harvard, 63-62. He had a double-double with 10 points and 12 boards, four on the offensive end, in a win against Samford.
The Terriers (15-5, 6-1 Southern Conference) have a huge game at 7 p.m. Saturday against East Tennessee State (17-4, 8-0) at Jerry Richardson Indoor Stadium.
“Derrick is not going to score 20 points on Saturday night,” Young said. “But I’ll tell you what he will do. He’s going to guard and he’s going to rebound and he’s going to distribute on the offensive end to make it easier for others to fulfill their roles. That’s what we call a great teammate around here.
“He doesn’t care about stats. He just wants to win. He was part of our last championship (2014-15) in a less-than-prominent role, but he saw it and he knows what went into it. That’s a fabulous commodity for this team — and any team. He’s been an exceptional leader. And I haven’t given him anything. He’s earned everything. I’m so proud of him I can’t breathe.”