Devin Brown has always been a scoring machine: he became the all-time leading scorer in greater San Antonio high school history while a player at South San Antonio West Campus High School, then became the all-time leading scorer in UTSA history with 1922 career PTS. The 1999 conference Freshman of the Year was the first Roadrunner to have his number retired but he might be getting some more company in the future as Jhivvan Jackson is a game or 2 away from reaching 2500 career PTS and Keaton Wallace is a game or 2 away from reaching 2000 career PTS. Devin later spent a decade in pro basketball where he was the MVP of the D-League with Fayetteville in 2003 and an NBA champion with San Antonio in 2005. HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Devin’s college coach Tim Carter about facing a #1 seed in the NCAA tourney and having a great scorer. Today marks the 20th anniversary of Devin recording the 1st triple-double in school history on 2/17/01.
Devin grew up in San Antonio: what made him choose UTSA? I think that his mother had a tremendous impact on him and as the primary person who convinced him to stay at home. I think he just wanted to play in front of his hometown friends/family.
In 1999 he was named conference ROY: how was he able to come in and contribute right from the start? There is an old saying that a dog will bite you as a puppy: even as a freshman he could flat-out score. We had a junior/senior-dominant team and he was just like the icing on the cake.
In the 1999 Southland tourney title game you had an 8-PT win over Texas State to clinch the title: what did it mean to you to win a title? It was the 1st time that I ever made the NCAA tourney as a head coach so it was the high point of my career. It was tremendous for Devin as well.
In the 1999 NCAA tourney he scored 11 PTS in a loss to #1 seed UConn: could you tell at the time that the Huskies were good enough to win it all? It was a pretty close game throughout most of the 1st half. Then they did something that all great teams do: they went on a run and were a superb team with stars like Rip Hamilton.
In February of 2001 he became the 1st player in school history to record a triple-double with 33 PTS/11 REB/11 AST vs. Louisiana-Monroe: where does that rank among the best all-around performances that you have ever seen? I have been around a lot of really good players but I was not surprised that he did that. The only surprise to me is that it took him 3 years to do it! We always knew that he was capable of doing that if he could share the ball.
He graduated as the school’s all-time scoring leader with 1922 PTS: did you realize at the time how prolific a player he was? He was so dominant in high school, graduating as the all-time leading scorer in school history. I did think that someone would break it: I do radio for the team and they have a pair of great seniors in Jhivvan Jackson/Keaton Wallace who score 20-25 PPG and have stayed here for 4 years.
He was the 1st Roadrunner to ever have his jersey retired: where does that rank among the highlights of his career? I am sure that it was huge. I worked really hard to get his # retired because I felt that he deserved it. I was surprised that we did not do it sooner because I pushed and pushed so hard for it.
He was not selected in the 2002 NBA draft but became 2003 D-League MVP with the Fayetteville Patriots: did you have any doubt that he would end up in the NBA eventually? I knew that he could score and the NBA gives people like that a good look. If he went to a loaded team then he might not have stuck, but if he found a team that could use him I could see him being a productive player.
In 2005 he won the NBA Finals with the Spurs: what did it mean to him to win a title for his hometown team? It had to have been 1 of the highlights of his entire career.
When people look back on his career, how do you think that he should be remembered the most? As a guy who helped get UTSA to a certain level; nobody won more games than Devin’s teams did and he played a major role in that accomplishment.