Roosevelt University

Dee Brown enters his fourth season as the Roosevelt men's basketball head coach in 2023-24 after historic success in his first three seasons.

Brown has re-energized the Lakers program and transformed them into perennial contenders during his first three years at the helm. After leading Roosevelt to the precipice of its first CCAC championship in his first year, Brown and the Lakers got over the hump in 2023-24. Roosevelt finished the year 25-5 overall and 18-2 in the CCAC to claim the program's only regular season championship and secure the program's second bid to the NAIA Tournament, ranking as high as No. 11 in the nation. For his efforts on the sideline, Brown was named the CCAC Coach of the Year as well as the co-College Coach of the Year by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. 

In total, Brown has coached nine all-league players and two players who earned Academic All-District honors from College Sports Communicators. 

A native son of Chicago, Brown is synonymous with basketball in the city over the past two-plus decades. He was a McDonald’s All-American and Illinois Mr. Basketball at Proviso East High School then became one of the most accomplished and popular athletes in University of Illinois history. Brown became known as “The One-Man Fastbreak” and led the Fighting Illini to back-to-back Big Ten championships in 2004 and 2005. He was the catalyst of Illinois’ run to the 2005 NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball National Championship game. A consensus First-Team All-American and the Big Ten Player of the Year in 2005, Brown was named the Sporting News National Player of the Year at the end of that historic season which also saw him earn the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Award. In 2006 he won the Bob Cousy Award as the nation’s top point guard, finishing his collegiate career as the all-time winningest player in Illini history as part of 114 victories in Orange and Blue.   

He arrived at Roosevelt after serving as an assistant men’s basketball coach for the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for five seasons. Behind Brown’s basketball acumen and knack for player development, the Flames advanced all the way to the Horizon League tournament championship game in 2020.

Following his successful collegiate career, Brown was selected in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Utah Jazz. After additional NBA stops in Washington, Phoenix, and Dallas, Brown spent nine total seasons playing professionally, winning two championships and one Player of the Year award in Europe.

Upon retiring from professional basketball in 2015, Brown returned to his alma mater and served as the Director of Player Development and Alumni Relations for the University of Illinois men’s basketball team under then-head coach John Groce. Brown started his coaching career on the AAU circuit with Chicago Meanstreets and coached the USA select team Bloomington Flex during a 2017 tour through China.  

Brown earned his bachelor’s degree in Recreation, Sports and Tourism from the University of Illinois in 2006. He was inducted into the Illinois High School Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015 and was a member of the inaugural University of Illinois Athletics Hall of Fame class in 2017.