City of Basketball Love

Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2022-23 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here)
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There aren’t too many faces remaining on Hawk Hill from the beginning of Billy Lange’s tenure as head coach.

Assistants Justin Scott and John Griffin are two on the bench. On the court, senior guard Cameron Brown and junior forward Anton Jansson are the last remaining holdovers from Lange’s first recruiting class.

From Day 1, Brown’s been a major part of what Lange and his staff are trying to build at St. Joe’s. Along with his 67 career starts on the court, he’s soaked in what Lange, Scott and Griffin have preached on a daily basis. 

The hope is that it rubs off on — or in Lange’s terms ‘drips’ down to — his teammates as they attempt to keep pushing the program forward.

“It’s pretty cool honestly to be able to be here for as long as I’ve been, being with the coaching staff as long as I’ve been here and just to see how it’s developed and everything and all the new guys coming in,” Brown said. “I can use all my knowledge just to get to them and help them learn the ropes that much faster. 

“We’ve got a lot of new guys, a lot of young guys. It’s just helping them speed that process up and getting them to where we need to be at.”

There have been challenges during Brown’s tenure at St. Joe’s that go beyond the 6-26, 5-15 and 11-19 records of the last three seasons, respectively.

The Hawks’ roster has fluctuated quite a bit whether due to injury or players graduating and transferring in and out. Finding out how he fit into the mix wasn’t always easy.

Brown was a steady producer from Day 1 at St. Joe’s. He started 31 of 32 games as a freshman when he averaged 10.2 ppg and 4.3 rpg for a six-win team in 2019-20. He was the team’s second top scorer behind Ryan Daly (partly by necessity with Taylor Funk injured).

The numbers took a slight dip in 2020-21 as Brown started 11 of the 17 games he played in, averaging 8.6 ppg and 3.5 rpg for a squad that rotated players in and out of the lineup throughout the season (12 different players started at least one game). He went from the second to fifth scoring option.

“Throughout all three years there’s been ups and downs just figuring out my role, figuring out what I can do on the court and just figuring out the cohesiveness of all the teams that I’ve been a part of,” Brown said. “Everyone knows guys who’ve come and gone here the past three years.

"I’ve loved all my teammates. I’ve lost good teammates that I’ve loved and have good relationships with, but I’ve gained some new ones that I made great relationships with. There’s been some ups and downs throughout all four years here.”

Brown had another solid campaign as a junior in 2021-22, starting 25 of 30 games and averaging 8.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg and a career-best 1.8 apg while also shooting career-best .336 percent from deep. He was once again the fifth leading scorer behind double-figure scorers Jordan Hall (14.1), Funk (13.2), Ejike Obinna (12.1 ppg) and Erik Reynolds II (12.1 ppg).

With only Obinna and Reynolds returning from that quartet this season, Brown will once again have more opportunities to let it fly. As he’s shown on multiple occasions throughout his career, he can certainly put the ball through the hoop.

There’s no doubt the Hawks will need him to do that this year at times once again.

“Me personally, the coaches always had trust in me, the coaches always believed in me to shoot the ball,” Brown said. “Every shot I get can go up and it will have a high chance of going in. Just having the confidence from the coaches this year and my teammates. My teammates are telling me to shoot the ball all the time. That’s just the biggest thing for myself, having more confidence in myself personally this year. I can play a bigger role on the team.”

The 11 wins last season were certainly an improvement from a combined 11 wins in Brown’s first two seasons on campus, but it matched the least amount of wins in a season in the eight years prior to Lange taking over at St. Joe’s.

There’s still a lot more work to be done.

When he first arrived at St. Joe’s, Brown didn’t have any reference for what a successful college program should look like. 

From inside, he’s seen and helped St. Joe’s get closer and closer to that image.

“I came and I didn’t know any better when I first came in here,” Brown said. “My first year, I didn’t know what a program that’s been here for five years is like, but this year, this is really where I started to see the difference from my first year to this year and what a college basketball program is supposed to be like. How guys are supposed to act when they’re off the court, getting extra shots, working out together, hanging out. It’s been a culture shift from year-to-year each year, which has been a really cool thing to see here.”