Prep Basketball: Brown Lures Judge Star
Once Judge Memorial basketball star Noel Hollingsworth saw the campus of Brown University in Providence, R.I., he knew it was the place for him.
The 6-foot-9 Bulldogs center orally committed to Brown coach Craig Robinson on Thursday, and will sign a national letter of intent with the Ivy League program in November.
Ivy League schools do not reward athletic scholarships, but Hollingsworth will have some of the costs lessened by academic and need-based grants. He carries a 3.95 grade point average, and scored a near-perfect 34 on the ACT college admission test.
"I visited there last weekend, and I really like the atmosphere and the coaches and just the feeling about the place," he said. "So I committed."
Brown coaches saw Hollingsworth play in California in July with the Salt Lake Metro club basketball team. He is the third Metro player from the class of 2008 to commit to a Division-I program.
Judge Memorial has produced Division I players each of the last three years.
Hollingsworth also looked at Lafayette, Princeton, Columbia, Penn and M.I.T., among other schools.
"One of the things they were telling me [at Brown] was they needed to sign two big guys, and they need one of those guys to start right away," he said. "I think I can be that guy."
Hollingsworth averaged 20.6 points, 13 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game for Judge as a junior, and had 22 double-doubles.
