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Loyalty could pay off for NU with 2018 guard Brown

Flashback to the fall of 2014, when a freshman combo guard at Chicago Simeon named Marquise “Kezo” Brown was taking the prep basketball world by storm and being regarded by some analysts as maybe the best player in the 2018 class.

The 6-foot-2 standout ended up seeing more playing time that season than any Simeon freshman since Jabari Parker, and he had just picked up his first college offer from Nebraska.

Later on that summer, Brown’s stock continued to rise while starring for the Mac Irvin Fire AAU program, and he was starting to gain interest from blue bloods like Kentucky and Kansas.

But just before the start of his sophomore season, Brown essentially fell off the basketball map.

He just wasn’t feeling right, as he couldn’t focus in school and was constantly “out of it” to the point where his parents finally decided to take him to the doctor. That’s when they discovered that Brown was suffering from a form of brain injury.

“I thought my life was over,” Brown told HuskerOnline.com. “It was tough. It was real tough. But I came back from that. That taught me that life is real, man.”

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He ended up spending the next three months in the hospital recovering, and when he was finally cleared to return to the basketball court, his role for Simeon had diminished to next to nothing.

He played maybe a combined 30 minutes the entire 2015-16 season, and many games he wasn’t even able to be with his team on the bench.

As a result, most of the colleges who had been recruiting him backed off entirely. Well, except for two: Nebraska and DePaul.

With the Huskers, lead recruiter Kenya Hunter maintained regular contact with Brown even when most other schools had written him off entirely. That fact, along with NU being the first school to offer him, have certainly not been lost on Brown since returned to action with the Mac Irvin Fire 16U team this spring.

“That shows that they’ve got faith in me, for one,” Brown said. “Two, that shows how loyal they are. I’m grateful that they’ve still been in contact and still believe in me.”

Playing along side four-star point guard Ayo Dosunmu - the No. 20 player in the 2018 Rivals100 - Brown has wasted little time in picking up where he left off following his breakout freshman year.

Nebraska and DePaul remain his only offers, but high-majors like Illinois, Iowa, and Northwestern have started to express recent interest, and many more are sure to follow.

“It’s been great to get back out there and play with the guys again and get back to the game I love,” Brown said.

Another connection working in Nebraska’s favor is the relationship Brown has with Husker sophomore Ed Morrow, a former Simeon star who was Brown’s teammate during the 2014-15 season.

“I’ve been talking to Ed Morrow, and he keeps telling me the coaches have been asking about me and stuff like that,” Brown said. “Ed, he’s told me that it’s a great school, but I haven’t really focused on learning about colleges because I’ve just been focused on working out and getting back.”

While Brown keeps his focus on the court, he said his father is handling the bulk of his recruitment and contact with college coaches.

As it turns out, his father was just talking with Hunter about potentially coming out to Lincoln for an unofficial visit now that the AAU season is wrapping up.

Nothing is locked in yet, but Brown was confident Nebraska would be one of his first stops once he begins taking his visits.

“Most definitely,” Brown said. “I think my dad talked to them a week ago or so, and I think we’re going to make that happen with a visit.”

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