City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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When Izaiah Brockington arrived on campus at St. Bonaventure in August, he wondered if he’d made a mistake.

The Archbishop Ryan graduate had initially committed to NJIT at the beginning of his senior year of high school, in the fall of 2016, but he backed out in the spring, in favor of doing a year of prep schools in order to enhance his recruitment and better prepare him for college.

But an offer from Bonnies head coach Mark Schmidt to come to the Atlantic 10 program right away was too tempting to turn down, so Brockington went up to Olean, N.Y. to start college with the rest of the 2017 class.

And that’s when the doubt set in.

“We were going through workouts and running and the two-mile...and I was so tired,” he said. “And I’m like, am I supposed to be here right now? Am I ready for this?”

A 6-foot-4 left-handed guard, Brockington had gone from intriguing prospect to one of the Catholic League’s best scorers during his four years at Ryan, finishing his Raiders career with a program-record 1,292 points. As a senior, he averaged 18.7 ppg, good for fourth in the Catholic League; finishing ahead of him were players like Collin Gillespie, now at Villanova, and Quade Green, now at Kentucky.

But at Bonaventure, he found himself in the presence of two of the best guards in the A-10, seniors Jaylen Adams and Matt Mobley, who averaged a combined 39.1 ppg as juniors.

“Getting used to the speed of the game in the beginning, playing open gym with the guys and everything, I knew it was different,” he said. “When I got there, it was definitely a shock to me...but I started to get used to it and just had to play with confidence and trust in the work I put in, and just know in my mind that I was ready for the moment.”

Brockington had no choice but to be ready.

Adams, a preseason all-conference first team selection and A-10 Player of the Year candidate, sprained his ankle in the preseason, and was unavailable for the start of the year. With Mobley sliding over to fill Adams’ point guard duties, Brockington knew more minutes would open up at the ‘2’ guard spot.

It took a couple games: Brockington played only three minutes in the season opener against Niagara, going scoreless while missing all three of his shots. He saw nine minutes in a win over Jackson State, scoring his first three points on 1-of-4 shooting.

Game Three, against Maryland-Eastern Shore, Brockington broke out; he dropped 18 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including all three of his 3-pointers. Two games later, against Texas Christian, he reached 20 for the first time; in between, he got his first college start against Maryland, scoring eight points and grabbing three rebounds in a big-time win for the Bonnies.

“Starting against Maryland and everything, it made me have to grow up and made me have to be ready for the moment,” he said, “and I feel like I accepted the challenge.”

So it was a confident and ready Brockington who walked into Hagan Arena on Saturday evening along with his Bonaventure teammates, set to take on the Hawks of Saint Joseph’s University. It was Brockington’s first game back in Philadelphia, his first time opportunity to play again in front of the friends and family who had so easily made it to his games in the Northeast and all over the Delaware Valley.

And he didn’t disappoint.

Coming off the bench a few minutes into the game, Brockington made it tough for Schmidt to take him out, scoring 16 points, grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists, along with a block, playing a career-high 33 minutes though the Bonnies suffered a defeat at the hands of the Hawks.

With the St. Joe’s defense focused on limiting the abilities of Mobley and Adams, Brockington went 6-of-15 from the floor and 3-of-8 from 3-point range. It was the fifth time already he’s hit double figures as a freshman; through his first 15 collegiate games, Brockington is averaging 7.1 ppg, 1.6 rpg and 1.5 apg, shooting a nifty 48.6 percent (18-of-37) from the 3-point arc though just 54.5 percent (12-of-22) from the foul line. And this is for a Bonnies squad that, despite the loss to St. Joe's, is 11-4 on the season (1-2 A-10) and has its eyes on March Madness.

“He played really well, he’s going to be a really good player for us,” Schmidt said. “He’s athletic, he’s got a good first step, he’s playing with a lot of confidence. He makes his mistakes, just like every freshman, but he’s going to be a really good player for us.”

Brockington isn’t the first in his family to play hoops at the collegiate level. His father, Antoine Brockington, was a standout at Northeast HS and then Coppin State under legendary coach “Fang” Mitchell, averaging 17.0 ppg during the Eagles’ NCAA Tournament appearance in 1997 and then 20.3 ppg the following season, when he was MEAC’s Player of the Year.

The younger Brockington said he’s never stopped hearing about his father’s legacy and success on the hardwood.

“People always ask, who do you model your game after? And I just watched my dad,” he said. “I never really looked up to a certain player and tried to take his moves, I just wanted to be as good as my dad -- all around Philly that’s all people would talk about, you’ve got to be as good as your dad, got to be better than your dad. He’s my primary inspiration for playing in the first place.”

It’ll take a strong collegiate career and perhaps an NCAA Tournament victory or two for Izaiah Brockington to be able to convincingly say he out-shined his father on the court. That’ll be determined further down the line, after Mobley and Adams are gone, when the Bonnies become Brockington’s team.

For now, it’s just about continual improvement, like the work on his jump shot that already looks much smoother than it did during his high school days.

But one thing is clear now, that wasn’t clear three months ago.

“It’s a great feeling,” Brockington said, “to know that I was actually ready.”