Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Remembering Mountaineer Hoops Legend Chris Brooks
January 28, 2021 11:28 AM | Men's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Game-winning shots seem to be trending in West Virginia this week after Deuce McBride's short jumper with six seconds left knocked off 10th-ranked Texas Tech Monday night at the WVU Coliseum.Well, I've got the game-winner of all game-winners for you taken by the most unlikely shot maker since Jonas Salk.
His name was Chris Brooks, who sadly passed away unexpectedly yesterday in the Bronx, New York.
People today who complain about 54% free throw shooters never saw Chris Brooks play for the Mountaineers in the late 1980s and early 1990s. We once watched Chris miss all 10 of his foul shots in a 22-point victory over Massachusetts during his first Mountaineer season in 1988.
To his credit, Chris was making adjustments each time he missed. If he missed the first one to the right his next one missed to the left.
If he was long, the next one was short and so on.
Brooks' shooting form wasn't that bad – elbow tucked in and shooting hand lined up with the basket like you are shaking hands with the rim - just the way coach Gale Catlett used to teach it for all of those years when every kid in the state attended his basketball camps.
But as soon as Chris reached the point when he was going to release the ball, he would hesitate momentarily before letting it go. So instead of one fluid motion ending with the follow through, there was a quick jerk right before the release.
Today we call that the yips, and poor Chris definitely had them.
Teammate Herbie Brooks, who Jack Fleming called "Little Brooks" to differentiate from the "Big Brooks," said he used to watch Chris make 60 to 70% of his free throw attempts during practices.
"It was definitely a mental thing," Herbie says.
It was also a mental thing for Chris the way he played around the basket – seemingly always in a bad mood!
I was Chris' classmate at WVU, and I remember the first time I met him down at Stansbury Hall during the year he was sitting out because of the old Proposition 48 rule. There was a big pickup game going on the main court when I got there, and I wanted to get up some shots before the next game.
So I walked over underneath the basket to pick up a ball to begin shooting. No sooner had I done this when the game immediately stopped and I heard a thunderous voice yell, "Hey, what are you doing?!"
It turns out I had picked up Chris' basketball.
"Hey man, I'm just using it to get up some shots before the next game," I replied.
"Ok," he said, adding, "but I will remember your face!"
"Not as much as I will remember who owns this basketball!" I thought to myself.
Brooks was an intimidator on the court who made his points (literally and figuratively) by dunking on, over or right into people's faces.
I was once told the story about the time Pitt's Rod Brookin threw down a dunk over some of Chris' teammates in a Backyard Brawl game played at the Coliseum in 1987. Unlike today, there wasn't much gesturing, finger-pointing and trash talking going on back then. You might occasionally hear a brief yell, which is probably what Brookin did to draw some attention to himself.
Well, that enraged Brooks.
The next time down the floor, Big Brooks soared through the air to dunk the ball so hard that he nearly pulled the basket and everything supporting it to the ground!
Had Brookin's or Charles Smith's or Jerome Lane's hand been anywhere near the rim when Brooks dunked the ball it likely would have been completely severed.
Chris Brooks always played mad like that, which come to think of it, would have perfectly suited Bob Huggins' style.
I could easily imagine Chris fitting in with Huggins' Cincinnati Bearcat teams in the 1990s, wearing all black and walking into other people's gyms like they owned the place.
Chris owned the paint during his four seasons at West Virginia, making a school-record 60.2% of his 1,147 career field goal attempts.
Beyond there?
It was best to duck and cover, which brings us to Chris' game-winning shot against Duquesne played at the A.J. Palumbo Center in Pittsburgh on Jan. 30, 1990.A see-saw affair came down to a moment late in the game when the basketball somehow ended up with Chris while he was standing beyond the 3-point line. There were just three seconds left on the shot clock and the game was tied at 74.
I'm fairly confident that's not how notorious shot-manager Gale Catlett had things planned.
Knowing Catlett, I am assuming Brooks was supposed to reverse the ball to the other side of the floor where Chris Leonard was positioned in the corner after he threw the inbounds pass.
Catlett was a man who understood percentages well and Leonard, a 41.7% 3-point shooter, was a far better bet than Brooks, a 0% 3-point shooter.
But Brooks, with the ball resting in his hands like a grenade with its pin pulled, took a quick look to his right, made one dribble toward the basket and jumped as high as he could (which is really high!) to let loose a shot that looked like something coming off the bat of Barry Bonds.
The basketball appeared as if it was traveling parallel to the rim before going in! Had there not been a basket there to stop it, the ball very well could have ended up at the bottom of Forbes Avenue.
West Virginia eventually won the game 78-77 and Associated Press writer Alan Robinson summed things up perfectly in his lede: "For one of the few times in his career, West Virginia junior Chris Brooks didn't mind talking about his shooting."
And he didn't.
"It felt real good leaving my hand. I was looking for our guards coming off the screen but the clock was running down and I didn't want to pass the ball. It felt good when I shot it and luck was by my side," Chris said.
It was the only 3 Brooks tried that year. Catlett, the man who understood percentages well, wouldn't dare let him try another, and Big Brooks only attempted six more during his brilliant four-year career that ended in 1991.
There was no better inside scorer in school history than Chris Brooks, who was powerful and explosive enough to jump over anyone to make his points.
In this one instance, however, he even managed to make a big one from 24 feet!
Rest in peace big fella!
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