Pierre Brooks becomes MSU's 16th Mr. Basketball award winner

Pierre Brooks II became the 16th Michigan State basketball signee to win the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball award for the state of Michigan, when he was informed of the honor on Friday.

Brooks led his Detroit Douglas to the Division 4 State Championship on April 10 with a 47-41 victory over Wyoming Tri-Unity Christian at the Breslin Center. Brooks fought through double-teams and junk defenses on that day to score 15 points to go with 11 rebounds, five assists and four turnovers.

“His level of improvement every year, he got better at something each year,” Brooks' father, Pierre Sr., told Mick McCabe for the Detroit Free Press and msn.com.

Brooks Sr. served as head coach at Detroit Douglas.

“His ninth-grade year, he was a little immature on the basketball court and would get frustrated real easy,” said Coach Brooks. “We really worked on that in terms of being mentally tough, mentally strong and taking coaching.

“Going into his 11th grade year we wanted him to get faster, stronger so he really dedicated himself to going into the weight room, running on the track. This year, he was just self-motivated. It was not having to tell him it was time to get up shots. He’s really been self-motivated to get better and take more of a leadership role.”

Brooks averaged 32.9 points, 9.3 rebounds and 3.5 assists for Detroit Douglas as a senior. He will enroll at Michigan State this sumer.

Brooks compiled 2,889 points in the Mr. Basketball voting, beating out Southern Illinois signee Foster Wonders of Iron Mountain (2,573), Michigan signee Kobe Bufkin of Grand Rapids Christian (2,143), Northwestern signee Julian Roper II of Orchard Lake St. Mary’s (1,668) and Providence signee Legend Geeter of River Rouge (1,410).

Brooks had 383 first-place votes, compared to 339 for Wonders.

Brooks is the first Michigan Mr. Basketball award winner to sign with Michigan State since Foster Loyer in 2018.

He joins a list of Michigan State signees who won the award including Cassius Winston, Deyonta Davis, Matt Costello, Dwaun Anderson, Keith Appling, Derrick Nix, Drew Neitzel, Paul Davis, Kelvin Torbert, Marcus Taylor, Jason Richardson, Jon Garavaglia, Anthony Miller, Matt Steigenga and Sam Vincent.

Follow Mick McCabe, the former longtime columnist for the Detroit Free Press, on Twitter @mickmccabe1. Save $10 on his new book, “Mick McCabe’s Golden Yearbook: 50 Great Years of Michigan’s Best High School Players, Teams & Memories,” by ordering right now at McCabe.PictorialBook.com.