MUNCIE, Ind. — Wherever Luke Brown was going to commit to college, he felt like he was jumping in blind.
For Brown, who began receiving Division I offers his sophomore year, the plan was to wait to commit until he could visit schools. But when the NCAA kept pushing back the dead period — where college coaches in all sports aren't allowed to have in-person contact with recruits or their families — that goal became impossible.
Due to COVID-19, the dead period ran from March 2020 through June 1, 2021. In July 2020, months after a global pandemic canceled the remainder of the Indiana high school boys basketball tournament, Brown committed to Stetson.