Will Brown is trying to win over ... someone

Will Brown is a 6'9" sophomore forward for the University of New Mexico that averaged 4.2 ppg and 3.6 rpg last season.

He's a big, strong, and athletic four man that can bang in the post, block a few shots, and grab a few boards. You can never have too many of those, or at least that's what I thought.

Over the weekend, Emmanuel Negedu, a 6'7" power forward who is also big, strong, and athletic, committed to play for New Mexico after he was cleared medically by the school. He is applying to the NCAA for a waiver that will allow him to play this season, and he may very well get it. He missed all of last season after his heart stopped during a preseason workout.

Negedu is a former top 100 recruit. While his addition surely will help New Mexico whenever he is able to get on the court, its not necessarily a good thing for Brown.

The obvious reason is that Brown could very well find himself one spot lower on the depth chart next year, which means less playing time.

But the more interesting reason is that the addition of Negedu -- along with four freshman coming in and two other transfers -- means that New Mexico will now have 14 scholarship players for next season. The NCAA mandates that you are only allowed to use 13 scholarships. So either one scholarship player has to pay their own way for school, or someone has to transfer.

Again, this is where Brown comes into play. There has already been quite a bit of speculation that he would follow former teammate Nate Garth out of the program, and Negedu only intensified those rumors.

So Will Brown wrote a letter to the Albequerque Journal:



Now, this letter was published on Saturday, which means he likely wrote it late last week, before Negedu was on campus and before he was medically cleared. But Brown had to have known that Negedu was coming to visit the school, and he also had to have known that a commitment would have given New Mexico 14 scholarship players.

I'm not sure that this was the smartest move by Brown. Winning over the fans isn't going to save his scholarship. But I think that this was a move orchestrated by Steve Alford. Reading New Mexico message boards, it seems like Brown has been a bit of a thorn in Alford's side, showing up late to meetings and practices and struggling to give his best effort every day.

Maybe this was a way for Alford to gauge Brown's commitment to the program. Having that letter published by a hometown newspaper is a bit embarrassing.