Brumbaugh ready to announce plans

[Guest BasketBull.]

The story is a little old, but it's interesting reading. He's a good kid with good people behind him.

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Brumbaugh decision doesn't surprise

By BRIAN MCLAUGHLIN

Staff Writer

May 13, 2005

DELAND -- When the news began to leak out about Keith Brumbaugh's decision to declare for the NBA draft this week, well, it wasn't that big of a shock to some people -- even with the potential of him not getting picked.

Gus Gibbs, Brumbaugh's guardian until last November -- spanning a nearly three-year period -- hadn't heard directly from Brumbaugh yet. But he wasn't surprised when he found out.

"It's actually been known he'd go to the draft since he was in eighth grade," joked Gibbs. "It has been his dream to put himself in the draft. That's been his goal, what he's wanted to do. He's been very honest with the (college) coaches."

Keith's brother, Jimmy Brumbaugh, who was a star football player at Auburn and is now an assistant coach at the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga, has tried to be a good listener with his younger brother. He and his other brother, Jordan Brumbaugh -- who played football at Tuskegee and is hoping to be signed as an NFL free agent soon -- are behind his choice.

"I basically want him to make his own decision," Jimmy Brumbaugh said. "I don't want to steer him either way. I'm a college coach right now, and I don't try to steer players, I just try to be there to help guide them. He's a hard worker, he does what it takes to get better."

Mainland basketball coach Charles Brinkerhoff coached 1998 NBA lottery pick Vince Carter, and also coached against Keith Brumbaugh this year. He said the college experience at North Carolina was very important for Carter, as far as adjusting to the pressure, the fans and media, but he said Brumbaugh might be playing the system just right.

"I think it's a great move, it can't hurt him since he hasn't hired an agent -- he's getting good advice," Brinkerhoff said. "One thing he does well is he's a shooter, and one thing they don't do well in the NBA is shoot. Knowing that the league is a specialty league now, there's a possibility somebody might need a 6-foot-8 shooter . . . Vince needed college, because he had more physical maturation to do. He wasn't ready from that standpoint. Brumbaugh probably needs that too, but he may be in the right spot at the right time."

Brumbaugh's high school coach, DeLand's John Zeoli, hadn't heard from Brumbaugh yet either, but he found out quickly about the declaration when he was inundated with calls from the national media Thursday. He got caught between a rock and a hard place, and insisted he has nothing to add.

It will be a very interesting next couple of weeks.

"I hope for his sake that it happens," Gibbs said of Brumbaugh's chances to get drafted or signed. "As long as he has left himself an option (because he hasn't signed with an agent)."

news-journalonline.com

[The_Reaper]

Lokks like he was getting a swift one to the gut in that picture! Maybe that's what he needs to come and join us? My bet is is that he won't sign on with us because Coach Mac will make him get rid of the braids.    Reaper