By Eric Stock
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – When you have been playing together as long as Brady Rose and Jaylen Beasley have, you can get away with the occasionally harsh critique.
“(Brady) knows how to get me going, he knows when I’m down,” Beasley said of his close friend, next door neighbor and teammate since the fourth grade. “I know how to get him going when he’s down. We just keep encouraging each other and holding each other accountable.”
Given Illinois Wesleyan’s 8-2 start and current number 18 ranking in the D3hoops.com poll, there is rarely any need for criticism.
Rose leads the Titans in scoring (13.6 points per game) and shares the team lead in assists (3.2 per game) while Beasley leads IWU in field goal percentage (.59) through the first 10 games as the Titans head into their final weekend before College Conference of Illinois and Wisconsin play resumes.
IWU head coach Ron Rose has watched their friendship blossom since he coached the duo in grade school.
“At this stage, they are more like brothers than friends. They know each other inside and out,” the senior Rose said, “There’a a real bond between those two and I think you can see it on the court in terms of they understand each other’s games. They just understand each other and players and as people.”
Brady Rose said that bond makes a difference on the court.
“When you’ve played together for so long, you know their strengths and weaknesses better than anybody,” the younger Rose said. “You know their personality and how to encourage them and coach them through things.”
IWU carries a three-game winning streak into this week’s games at the College of Staten Island in New York. The Titans will play Middlebury College (Vt.) (7-1) on Thursday afternoon and will face either Staten Island or Bridgewater (Va.) on Friday.
Coach Rose indicated the Titans win at that tournament five years ago helped prepare his team for an eventual Final Four run.
During that tournament, he had to check for scores to see how his son and Jaylen were doing in the Pontiac Holiday Tournament as Bloomington went up against powerhouse Chicago Simeon and future NBA player Jabari Parker.
This time around Rose will be able to keep tabs on the two from the IWU sideline.
“We are arguably playing our best basketball to this point and I think these trips are really big because you are spending some and you are experiencing some unique things as a group,” Rose said.
The team has visited the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty and more during their four-day stay in New York.
WJBC has the call at 4:15 p.m. Thursday. Listen live here.
Eric Stock can be reached at [email protected].
