Former DeKalb teammates score big in college

Brothers in basketball, Marshon Brooks and Andrew "Drew" Goudelock were unable to get their fill of the game on school and summer-league teams. Acquaintances knew they could habitually find the ninth-grade classmates -- with the third amigo, Terrell Bell -- playing pick-up at Center Court Fitness in Stone Mountain.

Life sent the pals on separate paths -- Brooks to the northeast, Goudelock to the south Atlantic coast. So on visits home for summers and extended holidays, they looked forward to informal games at the gym on Memorial Drive. All grown up, they would pile into one of the threesome's vehicles as late as 11 p.m., carpool to the courts and hoop it up until 2 in the morning.

Suddenly, the friendly competition between Brooks and Goudelock has been transported moved to a national stage, their paths crossing in an unlikely context.

Now college seniors, they rank among the NCAA's most prolific scorers. Brooks, at 23.6 points per game for Providence College, ranks third. The College of Charleston's Goudelock is fifth at 23.4. For total points scored, they are separated by two layups, 472 to 468.

Frequent phone calls and texts of encouragement that fly between Rhode Island and South Carolina occasionally include cordial jabs about whose average is higher. They have been at it since 12th grade, when Brooks and Tucker High swept three games from Goudelock and Stone Mountain High en route to the state Class AAAA title as Goudelock was named the division's player of the year.

Goudelock reminds Brooks of the 39 points he showered on Tucker, his most productive game ever. Unless it was scoring his team's last eight points in regulation of an overtime upset last season over lordly North Carolina.

Nah. The 39-pointer "is the most fun game I've ever had," he said.

As for memorable, no game might ever surpass last Thursday's. With a floater that squeezed through the rim 2:12 before halftime against Western Carolina, he unseated Charleston's career scoring leader, a record that stood for 36 seasons.

When the P.A announcer alerted the crowd, whose sustained applause washed over him, "I got a tingling sensation that I never felt before," Goudelock said. "It's a feeling I will never forget."

The sensation was heightened because, during warmups, he glanced over to the seating section for players' families and was stunned to notice his mother, Angela. Then, his two brothers and father. Marvin had pushed the speed limit on I-20 during a 4 1/2-hour drive and made it a family surprise party for Drew.

Charleston coach Bobby Cremins had deferred a ceremony recognizing Goudelock until the next game, so Dad made another round-trip Saturday. The same day that Drew was padding his points total to 2,162, Brooks was accruing 27 against Louisville for Providence's first win in the loaded Big East in nearly a calendar year.

"I sat there just thinking that those two were having macaroni-and-cheese at the house over Christmas," Marvin said.

Their fuel for basketball excellence is derived from a shared sense of rejection by talent evaluators through the years. In talent-laden DeKalb County, which included Bell, a starter at Virginia Tech, the pair struggled for leading roles on prestigious AAU teams. They drew casual interest from most college recruiters.

"Nobody looked at me," Goudelock said. "Schools would come and leave and never call me."

Brooks said he caught Providence's eye by accident, the Friars having visited to see Tucker teammate Jeremy Simmons. (Small world: Simmons is Goudelock's teammate at Charleston.)

"That," he said, "is when I opened their eyes."

Brooks hop-scotched across DeKalb in high school, starting with Goudelock at Stone Mountain. The next year, at Stephenson, a verbal confrontation with an assistant coach promoted Brooks' midseason departure.

He landed the following year at Tucker with coach James Hartry, who recalled a phone conversation with his counterpart then at Stephenson, Kerry Sandifer. (Small world, again: Sandifer is Stone Mountain's first-year coach.)

"He told me, ‘Hartry, you don't want this kid. He's got problems,'" the Tucker coach said.

Sandifer said he does not remember such comments but acknowledged that he was upset about Brooks settling at a basketball rival in DeKalb.

"In this age of recruiting, he winds up at Tucker," said Sandiver, who did not accuse the school of recruiting Brooks. "I wasn't happy about that."

Brooks claimed he did not meet Hartry until the first day of class in his junior year. He was 5-feet-10 and on no college's radar.

A year later, he had sprouted to 6-3. Winning over Hartry happened faster.

"He's a very, very sore loser. And I like that," Hartry said. "He did everything we asked him to do."

Still, with colleges, he was such a sleeper that one coach at a mid-level school told Hartry, "He cannot play for us."

Hartry chuckled at the memory of the same coach calling him once Brooks broke through at Providence and said, "If he as any problems up there [and wants to transfer], let me know."

Brooks was once prone to harsh self-criticism, which sometimes impacted his play. Hartry's antidote: "I'd tell him this is no time for a pity party."

Brooks would return the favor, lifting his boss after a discouraging loss in his senior season. "I've got you, Coach," the player said. "We're gonna going to win state."

Hartry welcomed those words, more than he did "You're next," which Brooks uttered -- to the coach's dismay -- at the Columbia High team after the state semifinals. In the 2007 championship: Tucker 56, Columbia 51.

"I'm a very coachable guy," Brooks, now a gangly 6-5, said in reference to his fleeting stay at Stephenson. "They told [Hartry], ‘You have no chance to win with Marshon.' That was fuel to my fire."

In hindsight, Sandifer said, "You could tell he was gonna be a player. Every coach has one who got away. He's the one for me."

Goudelock stayed with Stone Mountain High, though his family relocated to Lilburn in the Parkview school zone. Living conditions in the area had deteriorated, his father said, but not the basketball situation at Stone Mountain, which he considered a better springboard to college.

Yet, Drew's viable options were limited. He chose Charleston over Kennesaw State, a fledgling Division I program.

"He has always had to fight harder than anybody else," Marvin said. "That's been our mantra: keep fighting. He has an insatiable appetite for basketball."

Cremins, a Bronx native and longtime Georgia Tech coach, confesses a fondness for the "New York stuff" in Goudelock's stylish game.

"I've been very fortunate to coach some great players and Drew Goudelock is as good a player as I've ever coached," said Cremins, whose win Thursday was his 100th at Charleston, making him the 11th coach to accumulate at least a hundred victories at three colleges.

At Providence, coach Keno Davis was so excited recently about Brooks that he said, "This year, the light went off." In fact, the light went on, even as Brooks shoots lights-out.