St. Benedict’s swingman commits to Temple

The Temple Owls received a verbal commitment yesterday from Hackensack, N.J. native Aaron Brown.

Brown, a senior this season at the highly regarded St. Benedict's Prep School in Newark, N.J., was recruited by several Ivy League schools including Harvard and Penn before committing to play for the Owls.

"Aaron is a kid who I think is a little bit under the radar right now," said St. Benedict's coach Dan Hurley. "He's played on some great high school teams so he hasn't been the huge scorer that he would have been some where else. But he's a smart kid, he's a really strong student, and he has a chance to be a real impact player."

Hurley said Brown, a 6-foot-4, 185-pound wing, likely had offers from teams in the Big East and Big Ten waiting for him at the end of this season but that Brown was so impressed with Temple that he decided to commit early.

"Number one, talked about how great of a coach Fran Dunphy is," Hurley said. "He is one of the truly great coaches in college basketball. . . . And the quality of the program, even though it's not in the Big East, is really one of the best in the Northeast."

Hurley described Brown as an excellent perimeter shooter who's a "pretty strong finisher to the basket."

Brown is a three year starter at a St. Benedict's school that, in recent years, has produced Division I players, including Rutgers forward Gregory Echenique, Louisville forward Samardo Samuel, and Villanova shooting guard Corey Stokes. .

"Aaron's a three-year starter here and we haven't had many of those at St. Benedict's," Hurley said of his top national program. "That fact that he's been in our program has taught him how to be successful."

Hurley views the high level of competition that Brown sees on a daily basis as huge advantage as Brown transitions to college basketball.

"He knows what it's like to fight for minutes," Hurley said. "A lot of times when players spend their high school years as 'the guy' on their team, they don't have the ability to conform their game to allow them to play with other good players. But Aaron has that ability and I think he'll fit in nicely at Temple."