Winning the Northeast Conference championship and playing in the NCAA tournament has made things a bit easier on the recruiting trail for Mount St. Mary’s head coach Milan Brown.

Last week, Brown announced the signing of two players for Mount’s 2008 class, Philadelphia point guard Lamar Trice and Emporia, Va. forward Jacolby Wells.

Trice, a third team All-Philadelphia Public League selection, averaged eight points, eight assists and three steals per game for Ihmotep Charter, while Wells, who made Virginia’s AA All-State first team, averaged 15 points, nine rebounds and five blocks during his senior season.

Brown was kind enough to discuss Mount’s 2008 class with Recruiting Report last week.

Did you notice a difference in recruiting before your season and after? Was it easier convincing kids to come to Mount St. Mary’s after making the NCAA tournament?

We do try to hopefully get kids early and get them in the fold, but if it works out where we have to wait to the spring, we’ll wait. But we actually had that verbal commitment in the fall from Lamar Trice, the point guard from Philadelphia. So we just signed two kids late, but Jacolby Wells, actually verbally committed in the midst of us making the run. So I guess that the publicity helped in getting him. Because of where we are and the size of our school, the publicity has actually helped all of our programs ... and the entire university.

Did your postseason success help convince Wells to sign on?

He actually visited us early in September and waited until the spring to sign. Obviously, us making the push late into the NCAA tournament was the deciding factor in his saying, ‘this is where I want to go to school.’ It’s always good as a coach when I can say, ‘did you see us on TV three or four times?’ And he says, ‘yeah coach, we watched you play.’ It’s always good when you don’t need cable to watch us play. [The tournament berth was] definitely something that helped us keep his mind at ease. He liked our staff, our players, our situation -- part of it was just going away from home and just people in his ear telling him to wait and that he could go someplace bigger. The [tournament] push made him realize that we can do something big at our place. You don’t need to go to prep school. Come here and do something special with us. It opened his eyes. You can be a part of something special, and play and be a huge part of it. Not just watch from the sidelines because you’re at the bigger place, just because another mid-major or high-major needed another 6’7 or 6’8 kid.

What will Wells bring to your program?

He’s going to bring some ability to block shots and give us depth to our frontcourt with another athletic body. His best basketball is definitely ahead of him. It’s just a matter of when everything is going to click because he can score with his back to the basket, but he can also face up and play. He’s got a nice jump shot. It’s just a matter of whether it will all come together in November or later in the year, or whether it will take him a year. But he gives us another athletic 6’7, 6’8 player that can get out and run, finish in transition [and play] above the rim -- something that we definitely need.

What do you expect from Trice?

He’s a true point guard and he’s very quick. He’s going to enable us to continue to play up-tempo basketball and hopefully give the opposition no breaks when Jeremy Goode goes out. [He'll be] someone on the heels of being as quick as the point guards we already have. He’s going to continue to play up-tempo basketball. And he’ll bring a good basketball IQ at the point guard position, which is very important. His ability to beat people off the dribble is definitely going to be needed, because it will come from someone besides Jeremy. Now other teams have to worry about someone else.

Are recruits recognizing the Mount St. Mary’s name more since your NCAA tournament appearance?

Recruiting’s never easy on our end. ... When we go and see players, if they look and see our shirts, they might say, ‘hey, I just saw you play,’ rather than, ‘where exactly are you?’ It’s helped out in just giving us a little more leverage in trying to do things the right way and [it shows] we also can win championships. When you’re one of the last ones standing and you can actually have proof that you cut down the nets, kids want to be a part of that. It’s definitely given us some leverage and we’re hopeful we’re going to ride the wave when we can, be successful and hopefully do it again.

Sun photo of Milan Brown by Gene Sweeney Jr.