Brewer finds a new home at American

Troy Brewer, who grew up in Gaithersburg, got the basketball on a fastbreak Saturday for host American University. He drove down the floor and threw down a dunk to give the Eagles a 12-point lead in the first half against Lafayette in a Patriot League contest before nearly 3,000 fans at Bender Arena.

“SportsCenter,” hollered a fan sitting behind play-by-play announcer Bob Socci and analyst John Feinstein, who were working the game for CBS College Sports.

“SportsCenter” is the popular show on ESPN and the dunk by Brewer was certainly one of the highlights on Saturday for AU, which beat Lafayette, 73-60, as Brewer had 13 points, three rebounds and one steal for a team that improved to 15-7 overall this season.

Brewer, a junior guard, began his college basketball career at the University of Georgia in the midst of the football-crazy Southeastern Conference. Now Brewer, one of the many Division I players from the Montrose Christian program in Rockville, is hoping to end his college career at American University—a school that doesn’t even have a football team. Oh the irony.

“It was not that big of a transition since I knew of American before,” said Brewer. “I am from the area. And now I am back home. It has been a great move. I have enjoyed it. It has worked out well. I am glad to be able to play and get to know coach (Jeff) Jones better.”

Brewer moved to Gaithersburg with his family when he was in fifth grade and grew up near Jones Lane Elementary School, near where his parents, Tony and Sandra, still live. He was a basketball standout at Montrose Christian, a program that has produced NBA players such as Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City and former Maryland Terp Greivis Vasquez of Memphis.

Brewer headed to the University of Georgia and played two years for the Bulldogs, who advanced to the NCAA tournament during his freshman year in 2008. Wanting a chance to see more playing time and be closer to home, Brewer transferred to American for the 2009-10 academic year. He had to sit out one season, as per NCAA rules.  

Besides his parents, relatives of Brewer live in northern Virginia are able to make the trek to upper Northwest Washington see him in action for American. Brewer is majoring in business administration with a focus on marketing.

He has one more season of athletic eligibility left and after that hopes to play pro basketball overseas or enter the business world. At least two of his former teammates at Georgia have played overseas and Brewer has kept in touch with them about their careers.

“I have not put a lot of thought into it right now,” Brewer said. “I would like to go overseas somewhere. That has always been a dream of mine, to play pro basketball. But you cannot rely on just that.”  

So far this season Brewer is averaging about 11 points and four rebounds per game after averaging about two points per game as a Georgia sophomore. Prior to Saturday’s play he was sixth in the Patriot League in minutes per game at 32.2 and sixth in three-pointers at 1.9 per contest. He has led the team in scoring four times and had a career-high 24 points and 12 rebounds against Howard in November.  

For now he wants to help American get back to the NCAA tournament, something the Eagles achieved two years in a row, 2008 and 2009, before he was on the team.

“We are still focused,” he said. “Our main goal coming into the season was we wanted to be the best team in the Patriot League and win the championship and go to the tournament. That is still our goal. That has always been our goal. We have had a pretty good season so far.” And so has Brewer.