There’s one thing to be stated about understanding why you’re doing one thing.
When you already know — all the way down to the final element — the rationale for making a call, it nearly all the time makes that call higher.
In James Brooks’s thoughts, this additionally applies to basketball.
“That’s sort of the best way I coached,” James informed The Every day. “It is best to know the rationale why you’re doing the belongings you’re doing, so you then’ll do ‘em with out me having to say to do ‘em.”
It appears fairly self-evident. A coach shouldn’t have to inform their gamers precisely what to do always. However what James preached was totally different; it was deeper. James’s philosophy was exact — when you didn’t know precisely why you had been doing one thing, you requested questions till you probably did.
In his thoughts, it made smarter, higher basketball gamers.
And it made Eli Brooks.
That concept of questioning every thing — understanding not solely what you’re doing, however why you’re doing it — is what makes Eli distinctive. It’s what permits him to see the sport the best way he does, giving him the flexibility to acknowledge opponents’ units even earlier than they throw the primary move. Then, he not solely will get himself in place, however is aware of the place every single participant on his workforce ought to be in that break up second.
It’s why Michigan’s fifth-year guard and now winningest participant of all time has an all-too-fitting nickname: “The Professor.”
And it began in Spring Grove, Pa.
***
There’s no method for Eli to recollect when his household moved again to Spring Grove. Born in Sumter, S.C. whereas his father, James, served within the Air Power, Eli was simply two years previous when James’s stint ended and the Brooks’ determined to move again to Pennsylvania.
To Eli, Spring Grove was all the time dwelling.
It’s the place his grandparents and household had been, it’s the place he grew up and it’s the place he began enjoying basketball.
Not solely did James being out of the service permit Eli to spend his total childhood in Spring Grove, it additionally allowed James to be his coach. From elementary faculty to center faculty to highschool, Eli’s dad coached his workforce.
This grew to become a bonus, not just for Eli, however for everybody round him.
“Most highschool coaches have their youngsters for at most 4 years,” James stated. “So having a 10-year expertise with one coach, the dad and mom and every thing that’s concerned with a workforce, everyone sort of is aware of what the following (season) is anticipating out of them.”
That expectation was to succeed.
“The children had been used to profitable,” James stated. “That group of youngsters I had with Eli knew the best way to win and knew what it felt prefer to win.”
Eli was the star, however their success was shared. Eli had a method of creating everybody round him higher. In order a workforce, they improved collectively, requested questions collectively and developed an understanding about what it was prefer to play profitable basketball collectively.
On the opposite finish of the spectrum, the Spring Grove Excessive College boys varsity squad was not a workforce that knew what profitable basketball felt like. The Rockets had received simply two video games the 12 months earlier than James, Eli and his teammates arrived. The Brooks’ and firm had been decided to alter that.
Nevertheless it took time. In Eli’s freshman season, he got here off the bench and Spring Grove completed with simply seven wins. The subsequent 12 months, following a progress spurt, Eli began and the Rockets got here away with 15 wins and their first district playoff recreation in additional than a decade.
However in his junior 12 months, Spring Grove took off. Eli led the Rockets to a 25-4 file, claiming their first York-Adams Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation championship title since 1971 and their first ever look within the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Affiliation Class 4A playoff.
They discovered their method to profitable basketball.
“If you happen to purchase into profitable basketball, it really works,” Eli stated “… When my dad got here, they purchased in, they’d the best mindset. So having the ability to transfer ahead with the blokes that we had, everyone did their position and it labored out for us.”
Whereas Spring Grove continued profitable into Eli’s senior season, he stored impressing. Early on in his highschool profession, buzz rapidly turned to chatter, which turned to full on celeb. Eli Brooks wasn’t simply Spring Grove’s star, he was the man in York County.
“He got here off like he was very a lot an envoy for the realm,” York Every day File sports activities reporter Matt Allibone stated. “… He undoubtedly put a highlight on the realm.”
And the realm put a highlight on him.
“Each recreation was bought out,” Allibone stated. “It was all the time an occasion.”
And Eli was heart stage. The folks flocked to see him, and that meant Eli had the accountability to present all of them he had; not simply on the courtroom, however after the sport.
Eli would keep — taking images, assembly folks, speaking together with his followers — for not less than an hour after each single recreation. Win or lose, Eli did it.
“Speaking to youngsters, taking photos with youngsters, I really feel like typically some folks can get irritated with that,” Brandon McGlynn, Eli’s former AAU teammate and highschool opponent, stated. “And I really feel like he loves that, simply serving to little youngsters get their goals and stuff like that, like he’s greater than only a basketball participant.”
Nevertheless it’s greater than that. Whether or not he’d been that method perpetually or realized it in highschool, he offers every thing he can — it’s who Eli is.
If it’s signing autographs and taking photos after a recreation, he’ll provide you with that. If it’s telling his teammate the place they need to be on protection as quickly as he sees a set, he’ll provide you with that. If it’s shopping for into profitable basketball till everybody else does, he’ll provide you with that, too.
And he is aware of precisely why he’s doing it:
It helps the folks round him.
***
If you happen to requested Eli at the start of this season why he returned to Michigan for a fifth 12 months, he’d let you know one thing about “unfinished enterprise” or point out his starvation for a nationwide championship.
However if you ask him what he’s coming again to review, his eyes mild up earlier than he jumps into telling you about his masters in social work and about in the future working to assist youngsters.
Within the tunnel after the Wolverines’ current win over Iowa in Iowa Metropolis, when requested what he needed his legacy at Michigan to be, Eli’s eyes strayed elsewhere. He made eye contact with a child ready for an image and held up a “one second” hand sign to him earlier than answering the query:
“I’m making an attempt my greatest to move all of the information I’ve to different folks on the workforce,” Eli informed The Every day.
As quickly as he completed the dialog, he was proper by the child’s aspect, smiling, taking images and signing autographs.
The frequent thread that runs by Eli’s causes for returning — unfinished enterprise, a level in social work, making a child’s day, supporting teammates and coaches alike — is that every motive offers him one other probability to assist others.
And now, with Michigan coach Juwan Howard suspended till the top of the common season and the Wolverines’ NCAA Event hopes on the road, Eli as soon as once more has an opportunity to assist lead his workforce greater than ever earlier than.
“Whenever you go searching and say ‘OK, who do I would like with me?’ You go, ‘OK, he’s the primary man that I would like with ‘em,’ ” Michigan appearing coach Phil Martelli stated.
Whereas Eli maintains his management of the gamers, doing all he can to assist the Wolverines safe a event bid, he’ll be calling on the tenets he realized from his dad and in Spring Grove: ask questions, know why you’re doing issues on the courtroom, carry a profitable mentality and most of all, make the folks round you higher.
And that’s precisely what he does.