Stepping off a plane from Miami to be greeted by windy, 20-degree temperatures in Connecticut on Tuesday wasn’t enough to hinder Zach Brown’s fondness for all things UConn.

“I love UConn and I love Connecticut,” Brown, a 7-foot, 260-pound center, said while sporting a UConn knit hat and sitting behind the bench at the Huskies’ game against Tulane on Tuesday night at the XL Center.

He proved that love even more on Wednesday morning by committing to the Huskies. He’s the first Class of 2017 player to pledge to Kevin Ollie.

“It’s a brotherhood, and they’re also on a mission that you’re good at academics, not just basketball,” Brown said of UConn.

It was pretty obvious that Brown was going to commit to UConn on Tuesday night, when he had to think for a moment about the other programs he was considering:



Obviously, it was UConn all the way. Brown has made a prior unofficial visit to Storrs back in September.

Brown, who is a national top 25 recruit for the Class of 2017, continues Ollie’s recent trend of landing top prospects. UConn’s Class of 2016 roundup is considered one of the best in the nation by various recruiting outlets, headed by McDonald’s All-American Alterique Gilbert, a point guard out of Georgia. Joining Gilbert in the ‘16 class are Vance Jackson, a 6-8 small forward out of California’s Prolific Prep; Mamadou Diarra, a 6-8 power forward from Putnam Science Academy; and Juwan Durham, a 6-11 center out of Tampa, Florida.