Brown hopes to keep Pelham basketball at the top of D3

Keith Brown knew what he wanted from basketball at a young age.

When the now-senior finished up his freshman year, he went to Pelham High School boys basketball coach Matt Regan and asked what could he do to improve his chances of playing basketball in college.

Regan had one thing at the top of the list for Brown, who has started on varsity since that freshman year.

"I have a picture of him from sophomore year and he was huge," Regan said. "He was 255 at the end of his freshman year. He asked me what it was going to take to become a college basketball player and I said you've got to lose some weight. He took it and ran with it. He's lost a good chunk of weight."

Calling it a chunk might fully do Brown's efforts justice.

"Now I'm down to 190, so I've lost a lot," he said. "When I was heavier, I couldn't move that fast, so all my moves were slow. I could score, but I'd get my shot blocked a couple times down in the post. This year, I got stronger and I can finish more."

That progression is something that Regan has seen and enjoyed firsthand, even before Brown was in high school.

"You could see the raw skills and the potential," the coach said. "He was a big kid who was playing like a guard as a seventh-grader. He's added new elements to his game and he's gotten better, to me that's the biggest thing, just watching him add a new element to his game each year.

"As a freshman, he was a big, heavy spotup shooter. Sophomore year, he started to get into the block a little bit. Junior year, he started to score off the dribble a little bit more. Now he's scoring off the catch. That was a big addition, catching and scoring off screens. Also, posting 15 feet out from the basket, he's added that. He's become almost unguardable in terms that he can do a little everything."

Brown was the Division III Player of the Year as a junior as he helped lead the Pythons to an undefeated season and the program's first championship since 2006. He also finished third in voting for the King of New Hampshire Basketball last year, and will again be one of the best players in the state.

This year, Brown will also have to be more of a vocal leader on the court for Pelham. Although he was one of three captains a year ago, Brown could defer to seniors Ryan Cloutier and David Rogers when it came time for speaking up on the floor.

"On the court, I've got to be loud and lead my team," Brown said. "I learned from the other captains on the team. They were pretty vocal on the court, so I learned from them and took what they gave me last year to this year."

Despite the loss of graduating players, like Cloutier and Dylan Silvestri, Regan feels good about how Brown and the rest of the Pythons have been coming together during the summer, fall and during the preseason. It's when Brown comes off the floor that's been concerning.

"When you have a kid like (Brown), it takes the pressure off other guys, they can play their game and he can help them do certain things," Regan said. "I think the kids, you can see it, where we had games this summer where I might have taken him out just to see what other guys would do, and you could see them get uncomfortable in terms of being asked to do more. That's something we'll work on and we'll get better at."

While Brown is focused on getting another championship on the court, he's also trying to decide what he will do after his final season at Pelham is over. He plans to play baseball in the spring, but before that, he'll try to figure out where he'll play college basketball next season.

He's narrowed his choice of schools down to four - Merrimack College, Keene State, Endicott College and Saint Anslem.

"I talked to a couple, but this year is when it blew up," Brown said. "I had phone calls pretty much every day during the summer and the fall from random colleges. It was tough to get down to the top ones, but I feel good where I am right now."