Meet Zach Brown, the 7'1" center UK offered yesterday

Yesterday, John Calipari handed out his sixth offer in the 2017 class to Zach Brown, a 7'1", 256 lbs. center from Miami Beach, Florida. Brown is considered the second best center and the sixth overall player in the 2017 class by 247 Sports Composite and also holds offers from UConn, Miami, Kansas, Florida, NC State, Ohio State, UCLA, South Carolina, and UVA. Brown told Chris Fisher last night that landing an offer from Kentucky was a dream come true. "My dad actually just told me," Brown said. "I was very excited because basketball has taken me a long way and that was a dream college for me when I was younger." A few months ago, Walter Villa wrote an excellent profile of Brown for USA Today High School Sports in which he describes the big man's rise from poverty in Liberty City, Miami:

The low point for Brown, the youngest of five boys, came when his single mother, Ernestine Vickers, was hospitalized for a month because of a heart ailment. Brown said he and his brothers would sleep at the hospital until they were “kicked out.” When they returned to their apartment one night, the lights were out because of an unpaid bill. “I tried to rig the electricity and got shocked,” Brown said. “I thought: ‘Zach, you’ve hit rock bottom.’ But that’s life in the ghetto.”

In April 2012, the state of Florida took Brown and his brothers away from their mother, who was unable to properly care of them. They lived with their aunt until she was no longer willing to take care of them. Around the same time, the owner of Brown's AAU team, Michael Lipman, took interest in the boys and decided to take them under his wing, moving them to South Beach and establishing legal guardianship. Since then, Brown has focused on basketball, academics, and his faith. He converted to Judaism and says once basketball is over for him, he wants to buy apartments in the inner city and fix them up. "I want to be known as a good person first," Brown said. Even if this kid doesn't end up at UK, I'll be following his career. What an inspiration.