The UTC Athletics Department and the Chattanooga Times Free Press will release one member of the McKenzie Arena 25th Anniversary Team each day leading up to Saturday's game against Wofford.

Click here to see the other members of the McKenzie Arena 25th Anniversary Team.

 

Courtesy: Chattanooga Times Free Press

Mack McCarthy	- Download MP3-

Video: Tim Brooks Highlights

 

 

 

 

Tim Brooks has the two highest recorded season assist totals in University of Tennessee at Chattanooga men's basketball history, with 205 in 1991-92 and 209 the next year.
He also has the two highest steals totals, 83 and 72.
Like Keith Nelson, who preceded him by a year from Sullivan College in Louisville, Ky., Brooks was first-team All-Southern Conference both seasons he was at UTC and the league's player of the year as a senior. But Brooks also was most outstanding player in the 1993 SoCon tournament and led the Mocs to their first NCAA tournament berth in five years.
As then-Sullivan assistant coach Kenny Seifert said in confirming that Brooks had committed to UTC coach Mack McCarthy and top recruiter Henry Dickerson, “Tell the people in Chattanooga that if they like Keith Nelson, they'll love Tim Brooks.”
The UTC fans did. Moreover, Brooks was voted one of the top five Mocs in the 25 years of McKenzie Arena by a 13-member staff and media panel.
His two-year assist total stands as the Mocs' career record, matched in 1999 by four-year player Wes Moore.
Brooks is fourth in career steals, behind Moore and two other four-year players, and led the Mocs in scoring as a senior with 16.5 points a game. He averaged 15.4 for his two seasons.
“Tim could do everything,” then-Mocs coach Mack McCarthy said earlier this week. “He did everything well enough to get invited to (NBA) draft camp, when that was a big deal. ... Not only could he pass it, but he could shoot it, and he could certainly guard you and steal the ball.
“He wasn't the verbal leader you would like your point guard to be, but he was still a leader just by what he did every day, how professionally he attacked the game every day.”
Henry Dickerson, who recruited Brooks to UTC, first saw him play shooting guard but said he became the standard for point guards.
“He was probably one in a million players you can convert from a 2 (position) to a 1 ? that's very difficult to do,” Dickerson said. “But Tim had the skills. At first he didn't show the leadership ? he was such a mild-mannered kid ? but I saw how smooth he was and how hard he worked, and I saw his future was bright.
“I have always tried to look for another Tim Brooks as far as a point guard is concerned, but I haven't found one yet,” noted Dickerson, now the North Carolina Central head coach overseeing a move up to NCAA Division I.
“Tim Brooks is a class person. When he was brought into this world, they threw the mold away. He's a special man.”
Now an operations supervisor for the FedEx facility in Nashville, Brooks said Thursday that he “had a really good time” at UTC.
“It was short, but all the way around I really enjoyed it,” he said.
He still keeps up not only with Nelson but with most of his Mocs teammates, and he points out that he met his wife, Tammy, while at UTC.
His official visit included watching the Mocs upset nationally ranked East Tennessee State before 11,000-plus in the arena. He had also visited Middle Tennessee State and South Florida, and Alabama contacted him not long before time to sign.
“If Alabama had called before I made my visit to Chatt, I probably would've gone there, being an SEC school,” Brooks said. “But coming from playing before two or three hundred fans, that ETSU game sold me.”
E-mail Ron Bush at rbush@timesfreepress.com

 

Tim Brooks
Height: 6-0
Weight: 170
Position: Guard
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
High School: Valley High School
Major: Business Administration

 

YEAR	G	AST	AVG	PTS	AVG
1991-92	30	205	6.8	427	14.2
1992-93	33	209	6.3	543	16.5
TOTAL	63	414	6.6	970	15.3

Career Records:
10th All-Time in Scoring Average: 15.4
Fourth All-Time in FT Percentage: .825
Tied for First All-Time in Assists: 414
Fourth All-Time in Steals: 155

Single Season Records:
10th All-Time in Points: 543 in 1992-93
Tied for Ninth All-Time in FT Made: 123 in 1991-92
Tied for Fifth All-Time in FT Percentage: .872 in 1991-92
First All-Time in Assists 209: in 1992-93
First All-Time in Steals: 83 in 1991-92

Career Highlights:
SoCon Coaches Player of the Year 1992-93
SoCon Media Player of the Year 1992-93
SoCon Tournament Outstanding Player 1993
Chattanooga Times All-Time Team 1997