They would always be connected, Luke Brown and Jalen Blackmon. They played 18 miles apart in high school, graduated the same year, shared the backcourt on AAU teams, and took turns leading the state in their final three seasons with the 2021 Indiana All-Stars.
Blackmon Marion and Brown Blackford scored at a similar pace, forcing us to do math in first and second grade. Were they on pace to surpass Damon Bailey as the most prolific goal scorer in Indiana’s schoolboy history? For a while there the answer was: Yes.
Yes, both.
Things have changed, this is how things go in life.
Speaking of…
They will be a little more connected, Jalen Blackmon and Luke Brown. After both their freshman seasons in college, Blackmon at Grand Canyon University and Brown at Ball State entered the transfer portal. They both chose a school in the southeast. in Florida. In DeLand, actually.
They’re going to Stetson.
Yes, both.
Shooting stars like we don’t see
The title here is tricky. How can we fit every important truth into a handful of words? I mean, everything about this story feels big on the edge of insanity. No, maybe not for the rest of the country. Like many of you, I understand this.
From Luke Brown to Stetson? From Jalen Blackmon to Stetson? That won’t be too many enrollments outside of three states: Arizona, home of Grand Canyon University. Florida, Stetson’s home. And of course Indiana. Huge for us. Anywhere else? Well, I don’t care about every other place.
Jalen Blackmon and Luke Brown are two of us, two of the best high school basketball players this state has produced, and Indiana has produced a few. But it’s rarely like that. Luke Brown is number one. 4 all-time high scorer in Indiana high school men’s basketball with 3,011 career points. Jalen Blackmon is number one. 20 (2,269) on this list. On their own, on their own, they are rare abilities in this or any situation.
Insider:Blackmon latest in pipeline sees Bailey’s record
But together? The combination of timing and geography that struggles for the state points lead each year while climbing up Indiana’s all-time scoring table from nearly the same zip code? No, Indiana, our preparations haven’t seen anything like the 2017-21 Blackmon-and-Brown show, which has a front-page storyline from Insider Kyle Neddenriep’s second seasons to 2019 shortly after.
As you know, neither of them hit Bailey’s 3,134 points, but they were high-scoring freshmen on a legit field goal – Brown Blackford averaging 27.8 points and Blackmon Marion averaging 22.3 points – before health problems devastated them both. The injuries cost Brown eight games as a freshman (and one more when he was a junior), and cost Blackmon 17 games as a junior and two more games as a senior.
I did the math, so you don’t have to. Using the average score for the seasons they missed and multiplying that number by the number of games missed each season, this would be the case in an alternate universe where everyone stayed healthy and everything went as planned: Brown would have finished the game with 3,267 points. Indiana became the new scoring leader in schoolchildren history, and Blackmon would finish sixth with 2,843.
Jalen Blackmon:Insider: Luke Brown, Jalen Blackmon follow Damon Bailey’s score
Luke Brown: Doyel: We’ll never see a story like Luke Brown again
Unfortunately, this is not that alternate universe. Things don’t go as planned.
This is where this story turns into disbelief.
Blackmon, plans have changed for Brown
Brown had already gone to Stetson, you remember, signed with the Hatters after high school. Timing and life as they were, harmony was not there. Not last year.
Luke was unable to visit Stetson due to the pandemic, making a commitment and even signing without seeing school. Last summer, she reported to a Stetson campus that is being renovated, campus gyms are not available for filming.
Luke was clear about his obsessive-compulsive disorder, even if how OCD fueled his growth in basketball – pushing him to train for hours every day, every day – even if it hurt him in other ways. Being in a situation he’s never been in, on a campus he’s never seen, not being able to hit the gym, his comfort zone… no, Stetson wasn’t working for Luke in 2021. He transferred to Ball State.
Blackford:Doyel: Luke Brown grapples with ‘gift’ that pushes him to excel
Two: Blackford top-notch phenom Luke Brown takes a jolly tour of an entire town
A year later, he returns to Stetson. Isn’t that a thing? He went to Ball State for the same reason, that almost every rookie with a choice chooses a college – because of the coach. Luke Brown chose Ball State to play for James Whitford, not just geography. When Whitford was fired after the 2021-22 season, more than half of Ball State’s roster made it to the portal. Brown went last.
A year ago, Stetson coach Donnie Jones had gracefully handled Brown’s departure from Stetson – there was no harsh feeling, telling the player that he was planning to be a quarterback from Day 1 – and the Brown family hasn’t forgotten that. This is how a player returns to Stetson 10 months after leaving.
Blackmon has no such background, but is equally motivated to find the right place. The Grand Canyon, run by former Valparaiso star Bryce Drew, wasn’t like that. In a deep team that won 23 games last season, Blackmon finished 12th on the roster in minutes playing, averaging 8.2 mpg.
Blackmon was recruited through the portal by a handful of programs, but he wasn’t going through the process alone. He and Luke Brown are friends, see. They routinely played together for D1 Indiana during the summer. throwing baskets back to back passes from the other and then to the Indiana All-Stars. They were texting during their time on the transfer portal, not choosing Stetson as a package deal – each going for their own purposes – but loving the possibility of playing together again.
We’ll see what happens with Stetson. The 6-3, 180-pound Blackmon averaged 2.7 points at the Grand Canyon, remember, and Brown (6-2, 175) wasn’t much more productive at Ball State (3.3 points at 12.4 mpg). They’re talented shooters, but Blackmon joined a deep roster at the Grand Canyon and Brown joined Ball State mid-season. As excited as any of us might get—it’s me, I raise my hand in embarrassment—the odds were against Brown and Blackmon making an immediate impact.
Whatever they were at Stetson, we know what they were in high school. Brown was the state leader in sophomore (35 points) and third year (32.3) points, and fell short as a senior in part because, ahem, Jalen Blackmon led the state with 33.5 points.
Now they go to Stetson, continuing their intertwined careers for years, but never like this.
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