Five-star signing years in the making
UT coaches have been building relationship with elite prospect since start of high school
AUSTIN — Uncertainty greeted Shaka Smart when he awoke early on April 24.
At 2 p.m. that Friday, Greg Brown III planned to make an announcement that would make the Texas coach’s day or leave him devastated. And no one, not even the 18-year-old hoops prodigy, was certain what the day would hold.
But that thin film of doubt encased a deeper sense of confidence. Smart and assistant coach Jai Lucas had spent years forging a deep bond with the Austin Vandegrift star and his family of Texas exes.
More than anything, Brown’s uncle and former Longhorn Roderick Anderson said, this decision would hinge on familiarity and comfort. It was about feel.
“Going somewhere where he has the trust of the coach as well as his teammates,” Anderson said a few days before the announcement. “So I think his decision is going to be based more than anything on how much trust he has in the coaching staff and the players.”
Despite Michigan, Memphis, Auburn and Kentucky pining for the Texas Gatorade Player of the Year, Smart had good reason to believe the Longhorns held the advantage. Even an eleventhhour offer worth over $300,000 for Brown to play in the NBA’s new one-year “professional path program” didn’t rattle him — much.
That afternoon, the time and effort put in by Smart and Lucas paid off when the state’s topranked player placed a UT visor on his head.
“He really wanted to have some real suspense to it and some real drama to it,” Smart said. “It’s one of the first times we’ve been able to sign a recruit where he was making a decision and we really didn’t know for sure.
“We had a good feeling about it, felt good about the relationship we have, and that Greg and his family have allowed us to build with them. But we didn’t know until he announced on Instagram live and we found out just like everybody else did.”
Smart first heard whispers of Brown before the kid ever arrived at Vandegrift. Someone, he can’t recall who, rang the Texas coach with a tip about “the next great player in Austin.”
Brown cited the early arrival of Smart as perhaps the biggest reason he eschewed a six-figure salary and chose to become UT’s next one-and-done. Countless offers poured in for the 6-foot-8 forward over the past four years, but it was Smart and Lucas who spent the most time making the Brown family feel like part of their own.
“It might’ve been the AAU summer going into Greg’s freshman year,” Smart said of his first encounter with the son of former UT defensive back Greg Brown Jr. “Or it might’ve been at some point early in his freshman year. He was a guy who played the game with a passion and a drive and a confidence.
“So I remember Jai and I started talking about him. At that age there’s a lot of rules — like we can’t call them, they have to call us. But it was very, very clear when we started watching him that he had an ability that was special.”
Lucas understood what it felt like to be a coveted prospect.
As a senior at Houston Bellaire the young point guard, son of former NBA player and coach John Lucas II, was named a McDonald’s and Jordan Brand All-American. Scholarship offers rolled in from Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, Oklahoma and dozens of other high-majors.
So Lucas, who played at Florida and Texas, knew personally how critical it was to build personal relationships with athletes. More than that, he realized long ago you’re not recruiting one person, you’re recruiting their entire family.
“He was very, very consistent,” Smart said of Lucas.” I think that’s one of the underrated traits you can have in recruiting, particularly when you start recruiting a young man early in his career. Because sometimes when you have been recruiting someone for a while, new people can jump in and there’s twists and turns in that development, but Jai did a phenomenal job of just staying in constant contact and developing a relationship.
“He and I tried to work together on communicating about what we needed to convey and then just being as present as we could be within the rules at Vandergrift and at Greg’s AAU events.
Shortly after Brown put that white Texas visor on his head, he reached out to Smart. A brief text, indicative of the type of personality he’ll bring to the Longhorns.
“What impact do I need to make on this team?” Brown asked.
Adding a player with Brown’s pedigree to a veteran team could present complications. The blending of personalities sometimes can turn toxic, especially when the new addition is this talented and prominent.
When asked about that, Smart didn’t sound any alarms. It all came back, as it always does, to relationships.
“Greg has spent some time on campus, and there’s relationships there with some of the guys on our team,” Smart said. “When he committed and signed, a few guys reached out to me and said, ‘Hey, can you send me Greg’s number?’
“Our guys have been really, really excited about Greg Brown for a long time.”