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Washington's Brown will do prep year after graduation

04/20/2015, 5:00pm EDT

By Jeff Neiburg

Jeff Neiburg (@Jeff_Neiburg)
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With his Division I stock rapidly rising, George Washington (Pa.) wing Charlie Brown has decided to attend the St. Thomas More School in Oakdale, Conn. to do a year of prep school before attending college in the Fall of 2016.

There's still a few small details to work out, according to St. Thomas More coach Jere Quinn, but they appear to be formalities.

Brown was fairly young for the Class of 2015, and will have a definite chance to showcase his skills and get better over the duration of next year.

"I decided to go to prep school because I feel like I want to get stronger and get better," Brown said.

Heading into the second April live period, Brown currently has four offers: Drexel, Hofstra, Rider and Robert Morris. All of those offers came after the first live period, when Brown played with Philly Pride at the Under Armor Association in New Orleans. They are Brown's first Division I offers.

There's a very good chance that with the extra year, he could easily see his offer list skyrocket by the end of the summer.

"We think he has a chance to really be a heck of a player," Quinn said.

At 6-foot-6 and 189 pounds, Brown has become a very talented scoring wing; he's an excellent 3-point shooter and has gotten his handle up to the point where he can create for himself in the mid-range as well. As he continues to play against higher-level competition and get stronger, his stock should only rise.

While Washington relied on him to do a variety of things due to his frame, he showed significant strides in his outside scoring ability this season, which added on to a skill set that already featured the ability to score above the rim.

Brown, who was 11th in the Public League in scoring (18.4 ppg), will look to improve his perimeter skills on both ends in order to succeed at the guard/small forward position at the next level.

Putting some muscle on that frame is going to be crucial for Brown, who said strength was the biggest part of his game he'd be looking to improve at prep school.

More offers should come his way if he's to play well again in this weekend's live period, and even more should come over the following year.

Quinn, who has been there for 37 years, said that he's already been contacted by a few schools at the Atlantic 10, Big Ten and ACC levels to let him know they'll be keeping an eye on Brown.

Brown, who's the type of player the term "late bloomer" was created for, has received plenty of interest from colleges in higher-level conferences than the one's who've already offered him a scholarship. Temple coach Fran Dunphy was seen in attendance at Washington High School this year.

Quinn's seen many players come through the prep school program, and knows that one year can go in multiple directions for the players in terms of their recruiting stock.

"They either get really good at the level they're already being recruited at, or they give themselves the chance to get recruited to the next level," Quinn said.

St. Thomas More is the current home of two Division I signees in the 2015 class. UConn commit Steve Enoch, a big, 6-foot-10 center, and incoming Tulsa guard Sterling Taplin were on this year's team, which went 26-7.

NBA players like Andre Drummond and Devin Ebanks have also come through the St. Thomas More program en route to bigger things.

"Our program, historically, has given players a great chance to work on their bodies," Quinn said. "Kids have done remarkable things in our program."