Cal State San Bernardino's all-CCAA and all-West Region center-forward Brandon Brown has signed a contract to play professional basketball for Siauliai, Lithuania, a member of the Union of European Basketball Leagues. 
    In foregoing his senior season at Cal State San Bernardino, Brown said it was a decision based on the fact that “I had to make some money to support my family.” Terms of the contract that contained a base pay and incentive bonuses were not disclosed. 
    Brown was the California Collegiate Athletic Association's leading scorer in 2008-09, averaging 21.5 points a game, and the CCAA's third-leading rebounder at 8.7 per game. He led the CCAA in blocked shots with 39 (1.7 per game). 
    The 6-foot-7-inch Brown will play for a team that went 15-5 last season in the Lithuanian LKL league. Brown will be joined on the team by two other Americans, Matt Kingsley, a 6-9 forward from Stephen F. Austin University and Stephon Hannah, a guard from Missouri who averaged 9.6 points per game for the team last season. 
    Brown signed his contract on Tuesday, a team spokesman said. Brown leaves Friday for Lithuania to begin preparations for the 2009-10 season. Lithuania is located on the east side of the Baltic Sea between Latvia on the north and Belarus and Poland on the south and the Russian Federation on the east. 
    “We certainly wish Brandon well in this endeavor,” said Dr. Kevin Hatcher, director of athletics at CSUSB. “Obviously, his career goal was to play professional basketball. We are disappointed that he elected not to return for his senior season and get his degree, which would be very helpful to him later in life.” 
    Coyotes Head Coach Jeff Oliver said Brown's departure will have “a big impact as of right now. We're losing a guy who averaged 21 points and nine rebounds a game. At least we have a month before school starts to try and fill this void.” 
    Oliver said that if Brown had remained in school on an athletic scholarship he would have been within a couple credits of obtaining his bachelor's degree by next June and still been able to fulfill his dream of playing professionally at that time. 
    “Pro basketball will always be there but a chance for a college education that is paid for is not,” said Oliver. 
    Brown, a criminal justice major, was projected as a pre-season NCAA Division II all-America and potential CCAA and NCAA player of the year if the Coyotes team proved to be as successful this coming season as some observers figured it would be with his presence in the middle. 
    The Coyotes were regular season tri-champions of the CCAA in 2008-09 and won the conference tournament to earn the conference's automatic qualifier bid to participate in the NCAA West Regional, losing 83-80 to eventual NCAA runnerup Cal Poly Pomona in overtime. 
    Brown was the CCAA tournament MVP. 
    Brown had 11 double-doubles (points and rebounds) during the season. His career high was 39 points against Chico State on the road, the fifth-best single-game scoring performance in Coyote hoops history. He had a career-high 14 rebounds against UC San Diego. His 200 rebounds for the season ranked him No. 9 on the Coyotes all-time list. 
    He was a four-time CCAA player of the week and led the team in scoring in 17 of the 23 games he played. He scored 30 or more points four times.
The Coyotes were 20-10 in 2008-09 and Brown joined the team in December of 2008 when CSUSB was 2-4. The Coyotes went 18-6 over the next 24 games with him in the lineup. 
    Brown, the CCAA “newcomer of the year” from New Orleans, La., came to CSUSB after a sensational year at Holmes Community College in Mississippi, averaging 27 points and 13 rebounds a game. He is a graduate of Sarah T. Reed High School in New Orleans.