Immediately after signing his letter of intent, it became Talor Battle's job to recruit, not necessarily get to know, a late-blossoming 6-foot-8 forward from Louisville, Ky.
He didn't know much, and still doesn't, about Jeff Brooks -- the mystery man of the Penn State men's basketball team's 2007 recruiting class.
Nobody else, for that matter, knew much about Brooks until this past summer. That was before the Blue-Chip exposure camp, where recruiting expert Rick Bolus invited Brooks, then the No. 12 player in the state of Kentucky.
He wasn't supposed to be the one all the colleges had their eyes on, unlike Battle, who is considered one of the top-100 prospects in the country by many recruiting gurus. Maybe the Penn States of the world, the teams at the bottom of big conferences, would be the right fit for Brooks.
It all changed after Brooks won the Camp MVP award and, showing off an almost 7-foot wingspan and huge vertical leap in the Slam Dunk competition, Bolus now ranks Brooks as the No. 1 player in the Bluegrass state.
"This kid plays above the rim," Bolus said. "Penn State got a steal."
Brooks is said to have "guard skills" and can "run the floor like a deer." When it comes down to it, Bolus calls Brooks the "Rip Van Winkle" of this year's recruiting class -- the ultimate sleeper.
Now people are wondering how Penn State, a school that is 27-86 versus Big Ten competition in the 21st century, got this guy.
"He wasn't on many radar screens to be honest with you," Bolus said. "I felt that he was good enough to play for the Kentuckys and the Louisvilles and that they should consider him, but sometimes those programs make mistakes."
Before the Blue-Chip ratings boost, Brooks wasn't a regular at exposure camps like Battle, who participated at national events like the Nike Hoop Jamboree. He was just transferring from another high school during his junior year and averaged about 11 points per game, "trying to fit in," as his school coach Shawn Purlee, of Doss High, explained.
Brooks was just a role player when the Nittany Lions, with head coach Ed DeChellis and assistant Kurt Kanaskie, were at his door. From the first moment they were allowed to visit Brooks, they were there, and when the recruiting period ended, they kept in touch.
Now a senior at Doss, Brooks is averaging about 20 points and 11 rebounds per game, along with about five or six blocks. At around 200 pounds, though, Purlee admits Brooks gets pushed to the floor about 10-15 times per game. From what DeChellis and Kanaskie have told Purlee, they think Brooks has the potential to be a Geary Claxton-esque player once he grows into his body.
Purlee still thinks Brooks should be the state's Mr. Basketball, but the front-runner is a forward from Elizabethtown, Ky., named Steffphon Pettigrew, who averages about 30 points per game.
"There are a lot of people who don't necessarily vote for the city kid even if they are the most talented," Purlee said. "I think if you ask the coaches in the state who the best player is, they'll say Jeff, but I think sometimes other things get involved: either they haven't seen him play, or there are some politics involved with it."
Top college programs salivated over Brooks before he signed his letter of intent with the Lions on Nov. 15, 2006, the last day of the early signing period.
Rick Pitino and Louisville had a long-standing scholarship offer for Brooks, Purlee said. Arkansas and Vanderbilt also made a significant push.
Brooks isn't the type who wants to resurrect a program, as Purlee isn't hearing Brooks talk too much about the Lions' current struggles. He just wants to get away from Louisville for a bit. That is opposite of Battle, his recruiting classmate from Albany, N.Y., who is itching to get to Penn State and turn things around.
"He was excited about the opportunity to go somewhere where he could come in and play, because he's a competitor," Purlee said. "He doesn't want to be on the side. I haven't heard him mention that other kid [Battle] in terms of a resurrection-type thing."
DeChellis was in Kentucky on Tuesday to watch Brooks and his Doss teammates beat one of the top teams in the state, Fairdale, 64-54, usually a duty left to Kanaskie.
Kanaskie said being a losing team hasn't really made Penn State a harder sell to recruits, you just have to change your sales pitch. Bad teams can offer more playing time. A last-place team in the Big Ten can also sell the school and the league.
It was maybe a lack of alternatives that made Penn State the most aggressive.
"It was a Who's Who," DeChellis said, "but we were the constant, you know, because we are trying to get one guy, so we can be constant. We had one scholarship, so we targeted two or three guys and followed them all fall."
Their consistent approached landed them, in some people's opinion, one of the best players out there.
"The thing about Jeff Brooks is that the sky is the limit for him," Bolus said. "He has not reached his full potential and he is going to get even better in college. A lot of players, they peak in high school, and they don't get any better. That's not the case with Jeff Brooks."
