College Basketball

"Luis has a natural feel for the game that comes from the time he spent on the playground," says Manhattan coach Bobby Gonzalez. "He's a pure scorer. He can drive, hit the mid-range jumper and hit the three. Really, he can do it all."
—Lars Anderson

Brown Busts Streak
Dangerous Bears Are Climbing Ivy

One of the most ignominious streaks in college basketball came to an end last Friday night when Brown won at Princeton for the first time ever, ending the nation's longest active road losing streak to one team at 52 games. The following night Brown fell to Perm 73-66, leaving the Bears (12-10, 7-1 in the Ivy League through Sunday) a half-game behind the Quakers in the Ivy League. Brown hasn't won an Ivy title since 1986, and no team outside of Penn and Princeton has represented the league in the NCAA tournament for the last 14 seasons.

"Our kids went to Princeton expecting they could win," says fourth-year Brown coach Glen Miller, who has turned the program around by implementing a fast-breaking, un-Ivylike style. Brown has led the league in scoring every year under Miller and is on pace to do so again, with a 72.4-points-per-game average at week's end. Miller's system has been especially beneficial to 6'4" senior guard Earl Hunt, who is the school's alltime leading scorer (1,905 points through Sunday) and is fifth all-time in the league. Going up-tempo has also made it easier for Miller to recruit other dynamic players, such as Jason Forte, a 6-foot sophomore point guard whose older brother Joseph starred at North Carolina. "I think most kids coming out of high school want to play at a fast pace," says Miller.