To replace Luke D’Alessio, Bowie State was going to have to look local and high for an appropriate replacement. It was going to need a coach with local ties for recruiting and marketability, someone who had not been a failure at previous stops, and someone who was familiar with the CIAA and the pressures that it brings to each member school competing for the basketball title.
In Derrick Brooks, Bowie State found everything it was looking for.
He is a Bowie State alumnus, has coached at nearly every mid-major program within a 80 mile radius of the university, and is young enough to relate to today’s players and their demands and needs out of a Division II playing experience. Bulldog fans can have faith that Xs and Os will be on the up and up with Brooks, and that stocking the roster with locally renowned players will continue under him as it did with D’Alessio.
With the recent surge of accomplishment at Morgan State and Coppin, combined with tournament appearances by nearby UMBC and American, Brooks will have his hands full trying to lure second-tier talent from the Baltimore-Washington Metro area. With ties to Baltimore, Brooks should have a much easier time building the pipeline from Charm City to a roster that currently fields only one player from the city – Dunbar’s Delano Johnson.
Good choice by the Bulldogs.
