Nov. 16, 2006

Fort Worth Dunbar High School guard DeAndre Brown has signed a National Letter of Intent (NLI) to play for the UT Arlington men's basketball program in 2007-08.

Brown (5-11, 165), averaged 14.7 points, 7.6 assists and 3.1 steals while earning first-team all-state honors by the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches (TABC) as a junior for Dunbar High School. He has been ranked as high as the 94th best prospect in the nation by Rivals.com. He is considered one of the top 25 high prospects by several recruiting services including Clark Francis' Hoop Scoop (7th), Tim Onkst's Texas Roundball.com (21st) and Rivals.com (14th).

Brown, who chose UTA over Nebraska, Houston and SMU, ran the point guard position for the Dunbar Flying Wildcats to the UIL Class 4A state championship. He had 18 points, six rebounds and seven assists in Dunbar's 95-66 win over San Antonio Brackenridge in the state title game. In addition to being named to the All-Tournament team at the state tournament, Brown was named all-region, first-team all district and was the MVP of the 2005 Whataburger Holiday Tournament.

"We feel fortunate to sign one of the top players in the Metroplex," said first-year coach Scott Cross. "DeAndre has impressive credentials and he has tremendous upside. You look at the schools we were able to beat out to get him and it shows what college coaches think about them. I think they can have a big impact on taking our program to the next level."

The early signing period for colleges and universities concluded Wednesday.

UT Arlington (2-0) travels to TCU for a noon tipoff on Saturday.

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