On the Beat: Cal’s Brown Tops List of Tuesday Workout Invitees

PHILADELPHIA – A day after hosting a projected top-10 draft pick for the first time this year, the 76ers will quickly have a second chance to do so.Cal forward Jaylen Brown headlines the list of prospects slated to report to the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine on Tuesday.  Brown, like Duke swingman Brandon Ingram on Monday, will workout in front of the team by himself.  The other six invitees – UC Santa Barbara’s Michael Bryson, Iona’s A.J. English, Mississippi’s Tomasz Gielo, Iowa State’s Georges Niang, Dayton’s Dyshawn Pierre, and Iowa’s Jarrod Uthoff – will participate in a group session held Tuesday morning, prior to Brown taking the floor. The Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, Brown accounted for 14.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game in his lone season at Berkeley.  His most productive basketball came midway through the year, when he enjoyed a six-game stretch during which he posted 19.0 points per game, and shot 48.9 percent from the field.  In Brown’s last five appearances, all of which came in the post-season, he averaged just 7.8 points.SIXERS.COM PROSPECT PROFILE: Jaylen BrownA four-year starting guard at Santa Barbara, Bryson saved his best for last.  He tallied 18.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game as a senior, in addition to nailing 72 three-pointers.  Bryson was tabbed All-Big West First-Team in each of his final two years with the Gauchos.  Throughout his time at Iona, English demonstrated he could produce points in volume.  Last year was the guard’s finest example, as he erupted for a personal-best 22.6 points per game, en route to All-MAAC First-Team honors.  English, a Wilmington, Delaware native, ended his career as the MAAC’s eighth all-time leading scorer, and was selected as the MVP of the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament, an annual showcase for college seniors.  Although Gielo’s collegiate run ended with Mississippi, he spent portions of the previous four seasons at Liberty, the mid-major program based in Lynchburg, Virginia.  Gielo, who averaged 9.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game for the Rebels, transferred to the SEC school after a stress fracture limited him to only seven games the year before.  Hailing from Poland, Gielo, according to Ole Miss’ website, faced current NBA players Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal, and Tony Wroten when he was in high school. Niang earned national acclaim after averaging 20.5 points per game for Iowa State.  Not only did he rank second in the Big 12 in scoring, the four-year Cyclone topped the conference with a 54.6 field goal percentage.  Voted the Karl Malone Award recipient as the top power forward in the nation, the 6’9″ tall, 231 pound Niang contemplated turning pro last spring, but ultimately opted to fulfill his commitment to Iowa State.Pierre too attended the Portsmouth Invitational Tournament.  He registered more than 12 points and eight rebounds per game as both a junior and senior, and landed a spot on the All-Atlantic 10 Second-Team roster following each of those two campaigns as well. Uthoff is the only prospect from Tuesday’s batch other than Brown to leave college before playing four seasons.  As a junior for the Hawkeyes, he increased his per-40 minute scoring rate by more than 8.0 points per game, and netted a consensus All-America Second-Team pick.  For the year, Uthoff churned out 18.9 points, second-best in the Big 10, and turned aside 83 blocked shots.  Also of note, the 6’9″ tall, 210 pound forward buried 120 triples over the last two years. Of the seven players visiting the Sixers Tuesday, four – Brown, English, Niang, and Uthoff – travelled to Chicago last month for the NBA Draft Combine.