A year after announcing on ESPNU as an Oakland High School senior that he would play college basketball at Oregon, heralded guard Jabari Brown appears to have chosen his next destination in a quieter fashion Monday.
Brown, in a report by ESPN’s Diamond Leung, says he has committed to play for Frank Haith and Missouri. His mother confirmed her son’s decision.
Brown was averaging 6.0 points and 5.5 turnovers before he departed Oregon. Brown was the nation’s seventh-ranked shooting guard in the class of 2011 and was the centerpiece of Ducks coach Dana Altman‘s recruiting class.
Fannie Brown cited “a good fit” with Missouri’s system and Tigers coach Frank Haith while declining to elaborate on her son’s departure from Oregon.
“I’ll just say it was a tough decision to leave when you know these young men will be raked over the coals when people don’t have any idea what’s going on,” she said.
“We thank Coach Altman and his staff for what they did for Jabari. It was a decision he made, and we will always support our boy.”
One of the nation’s top guards as a high schooler, Brown left Oregon the weekend of Nov. 21, just two games into the season and only months after Oregon played five games in Italy, where Brown led the Ducks averaging 15.0 points per game. Oregon then lost another freshman guard, Bruce Barron, who left the program just weeks later.
The 6-5 guard from Oakland can play the point or shooting guard, and will be a nice addition to Mizzou with the losses of seniors Kim English and Marcus Denmon next season.
Because of the mid-year transfer, Brown can not play for the Tigers in games until next December – much like the case of Minnesota-to-Oregon transfer Devoe Joseph, who has filled Brown’s absence for the Ducks.
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