6-9
265 Lbs
Center
Freshman
ESPN Rating
Not Available
Senior stats at East Side
8.7 PPG
4.5 RPG
6 games
The Road Well Traveled. Written by David Kieg, but you wonder if while composing it he had Darnell Brodie in mind.
The Newark native's journey to Seton Hall has been a long and arduous one. Starting just a few miles from his ultimate destination in South Orange at East Side High School, continuing at Putman Science in Connecticut, a return encore to East Side and then a final stop at Montverde Academy in Florida. All in the search to become a player who would ultimately earn a college scholarship in his home state playing in one of the elite conferences in the country, the Big East.
Mission accomplished when on December 24, 2016 the big man verbaled to Seton Hall signing his NLOI 4 months later to play for the Pirates.
Still, unknown at the time Brodie's journey was not complete. Late in the summer of 2017 head coach Kevin Willard and his assistant who was responsible bringing in the 6-10 center, Fred Hill, decided it was in Brodie's best interest to take a prep year before entering the Hall. The reason was a simple one. Playing time. Or lack thereof. With Seton Hall's Haggerty Award winner Angel Delgado coming back for his senior season there were not a lot of minutes available at the post position, so there would be one final stop in the long journey. That playing for Montverde's prep team under Kevin Boyle Jr, son of Kevin Boyle Sr who coaches the high school team at the same school.
Boyle Sr as most Pirate fans know began his career at Seton Hall and has kept close ties with two of his former players he mentored at the Patrick School in Elizabeth NJ. Former players who at the time were assistant coaches for the Pirates, Shaheen Holloway and Grant Billmeier.
Those connections proved fruitful for each party when Brodie agreed to travel south and play for Eagles.
In an interview with Boyle Jr conducted by Adam Zagoria Brodie's new coach noted "Darnell has incredible size and strength. For a player with his size he has surprising mobility and touch on jumpers and shots near the rim. He has been around good coaching and teaching but doesn’t have the same years and years of experience as other kids his age. He has the talent and drive to compete with anyone and I hope we can help expedite his development and turn him into an immediate impact player at the college level.”
Bottom Line
Now on campus the journey is near completion and Darnell Brodie's Seton Hall career will officially begin this spring when he takes summer classes before donning the Blue and White for the first time this coming season.
Brodie is still raw and despite the year of prep school he needs time on the court to maximize his game. But raw as he may be early in his basketball career one thing is clear, Brodie is possessed to become the best basketball version of himself he can be.
It started with a letter he received from a fan claiming to be from Seton Hall but clearly that was not the case. The letter, since pinned to the top of Brodie's twitter account, Brodie@BIG__BRODIE was intended to discredit the young man's abilities noting that he was not good enough to play in the Big East. But the letter had the opposite effect. It served as motivation and now nearly 6 months later the letter still remains pinned.
Anyone who thinks that Brodie did not take the letter to heart need only look at him now. A year ago at this time Brodie was a big framed teenager with a fat to muscle ratio that would not cut it in the Big East. Now his frame is chiseled with a body fat ratio of about 10 percentage, an incredible metamorphose accomplished in 6 short months.
This is the player Kevin Willard expected when he signed his NLOI saying, “We’re very excited to welcome Darnell to the Seton Hall Basketball family. “He is not only a great young man, but he is also a hard worker and talented defender. He is strong, wide-bodied with broad shoulders and will be a physical presence on the court for us. We’re looking forward to getting him here on campus to begin preparing for his freshman year.”
That freshmen year took a one season detour, but now the Well Traveled Road has come to an end and Pirate fans hope the journey was worth the wait. If hard work and determination are any indication the answer will be a resounding yes.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Comments
265 Lbs
Center
Freshman
ESPN Rating
Not Available
Senior stats at East Side
8.7 PPG
4.5 RPG
6 games
The Road Well Traveled. Written by David Kieg, but you wonder if while composing it he had Darnell Brodie in mind.
The Newark native's journey to Seton Hall has been a long and arduous one. Starting just a few miles from his ultimate destination in South Orange at East Side High School, continuing at Putman Science in Connecticut, a return encore to East Side and then a final stop at Montverde Academy in Florida. All in the search to become a player who would ultimately earn a college scholarship in his home state playing in one of the elite conferences in the country, the Big East.
Mission accomplished when on December 24, 2016 the big man verbaled to Seton Hall signing his NLOI 4 months later to play for the Pirates.
Still, unknown at the time Brodie's journey was not complete. Late in the summer of 2017 head coach Kevin Willard and his assistant who was responsible bringing in the 6-10 center, Fred Hill, decided it was in Brodie's best interest to take a prep year before entering the Hall. The reason was a simple one. Playing time. Or lack thereof. With Seton Hall's Haggerty Award winner Angel Delgado coming back for his senior season there were not a lot of minutes available at the post position, so there would be one final stop in the long journey. That playing for Montverde's prep team under Kevin Boyle Jr, son of Kevin Boyle Sr who coaches the high school team at the same school.
Boyle Sr as most Pirate fans know began his career at Seton Hall and has kept close ties with two of his former players he mentored at the Patrick School in Elizabeth NJ. Former players who at the time were assistant coaches for the Pirates, Shaheen Holloway and Grant Billmeier.
Those connections proved fruitful for each party when Brodie agreed to travel south and play for Eagles.
In an interview with Boyle Jr conducted by Adam Zagoria Brodie's new coach noted "Darnell has incredible size and strength. For a player with his size he has surprising mobility and touch on jumpers and shots near the rim. He has been around good coaching and teaching but doesn’t have the same years and years of experience as other kids his age. He has the talent and drive to compete with anyone and I hope we can help expedite his development and turn him into an immediate impact player at the college level.”
Bottom Line
Now on campus the journey is near completion and Darnell Brodie's Seton Hall career will officially begin this spring when he takes summer classes before donning the Blue and White for the first time this coming season.
Brodie is still raw and despite the year of prep school he needs time on the court to maximize his game. But raw as he may be early in his basketball career one thing is clear, Brodie is possessed to become the best basketball version of himself he can be.
It started with a letter he received from a fan claiming to be from Seton Hall but clearly that was not the case. The letter, since pinned to the top of Brodie's twitter account, Brodie@BIG__BRODIE was intended to discredit the young man's abilities noting that he was not good enough to play in the Big East. But the letter had the opposite effect. It served as motivation and now nearly 6 months later the letter still remains pinned.
Anyone who thinks that Brodie did not take the letter to heart need only look at him now. A year ago at this time Brodie was a big framed teenager with a fat to muscle ratio that would not cut it in the Big East. Now his frame is chiseled with a body fat ratio of about 10 percentage, an incredible metamorphose accomplished in 6 short months.
This is the player Kevin Willard expected when he signed his NLOI saying, “We’re very excited to welcome Darnell to the Seton Hall Basketball family. “He is not only a great young man, but he is also a hard worker and talented defender. He is strong, wide-bodied with broad shoulders and will be a physical presence on the court for us. We’re looking forward to getting him here on campus to begin preparing for his freshman year.”
That freshmen year took a one season detour, but now the Well Traveled Road has come to an end and Pirate fans hope the journey was worth the wait. If hard work and determination are any indication the answer will be a resounding yes.
https://setonhall.rivals.com/
Comments
