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Eric Brown, a fourth-year USC assistant coach, lends more than a decade's worth of coaching experience to the Trojan staff despite being only 30. Brown was named an assistant with the USC men's basketball program on Aug. 29, 2001, after three years as an assistant at Cal State Northridge.
 Eric Brown 
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Brown's responsibilities include offensive coordinator, recruiting, scouting and the development and workouts of USC's post players. In his first year with the team in 2002, USC's offense posted several marks that were among the school's all-time Top 10: 2,494 points (second all-time), 909 field goals (third), 504 assists (fourth) and 77.9 points per game (eighth). Additionally, USC led the Pac-10 in assist-turnover ratio (1.30). USC's scoring averages in 2003 (76.5) and 2004 (75.4) were both among the top 45 in the country.
As a recruiter, Brown signed two players ranked in the top 100 in the country in 2003 and one in 2002. He also heads up all international recruiting.
USC's forwards and centers have been well decorated under Brown. Most recently, forward Jeff McMillan was named the 2004 Pac-10 Newcomer of the Year while forward Sam Clancy was named 2002 Pac-10 Player of the Year. Center Rory O'Neil earned 2003 All-Pac-10 Tournament Team honors.
Before coming to USC, Brown spent three seasons (1999-01) as an assistant at Northridge, where he helped lead the Matadors to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in school history (2001). In three years, he coached eight All-Big Sky Conference players, including 2001 Big Sky MVP Brian Heinle. Northridge went 59-32 in his time there.
Among Brown's duties at Northridge were recruiting coordinator, handling the team's academics, team travel, scouting and coaching the perimeter players. When Northridge made its first- ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2001, the Matadors were sixth in the country in field goal percentage and seventh in scoring and guard Markus Carr led the nation in assists. In 1999, Northridge was ninth in the country in scoring and 11th in three-pointers.
Three players Brown signed at Northridge before coming to USC earned 2002 Big West All-Freshman honors, including the Big West Freshman of the Year.
Brown is entering his 10th year as a coach, a tenure which includes stints at the college, junior college, high school and AAU level. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Grant High in Van Nuys, Calif. (1995-97). He served as the head coach of the junior varsity boys team as well as an assistant coach for the boys varsity team. While at Grant, he coached a pair of All-City players, including former Arizona guard and current Washington Wizard Gilbert Arenas.
He was an assistant coach at L.A. Valley College in Van Nuys in 1998, where he helped the Monarchs to a 22-10 overall record before joining the Northridge staff. Five players from the 1998 Monarchs team went on to Division I schools. He also recruited four other players who went on to receive Division I scholarships. Those four players led the Monarchs to the State Final Four as sophomores after Brown's departure.
As a player, Brown played guard for four years at Grant (1988-91) and played a year at Valley College in 1993. He was a walk-on at Arizona in 1994 before attending Northridge, where he received a bachelor's degree in sociology in 1998.
