Seton Hall men’s basketball head coach Shaheen Holloway said he wanted shooters—and now he’s got several.
On Wednesday, On3’s Joe Tipton reported that Rodney Brown Jr., a 6-foot-6 junior guard / wing from Loyola Marymount, has committed to SHU out of the transfer portal.
Starting in all but one of the Lions’ 31 games last season, Brown Jr. averaged 14.0 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 32.3 minutes per game.
Named an All-West Coast Conference (WCC) Honorable Mention, what Brown Jr. brings to The Hall is much-needed consistency from beyond the arc: the junior guard / wing’s 38.2% from 3-point range on the season was the third-best in the conference, while his 87 made triples were the most by any WCC player last season.
But Brown Jr. isn’t the only 3-point sniper to commit to The Hall this offseason: a little over a week before Brown Jr.’s commitment, Kareem Thomas did the same.
A 6-foot-5 sophomore guard from Dartmouth, Thomas averaged 15.9 points, 3.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists in 29.2 minutes per game. More importantly, his 44.7% from 3-point range last season was the second-highest 3-point percentage in the Ivy League, trailing the leader by just 0.06%.
The addition of both Brown Jr. and Thomas to next season’s roster has helped address a much-needed area of improvement for The Hall, whose three-point attempts, makes and overall percentage all ranked among the lowest in Division I men’s college basketball last season (359th, 357th and 334th out of 361 teams, respectively).
As things currently stand, Brown Jr. becomes the eighth player on SHU’s roster with his commitment. That leaves just seven more spots to fill, and with most of the current roster being guards and guard / forwards like Brown Jr., it's likely Holloway and his staff will address the team’s frontcourt next.
Zachary Mawby is the head editor of The Setonian’s Sports section. He can be reached at zachary.mawby@student.shu.edu.
