The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com 
Wednesday, November 9, 2022 — 11 
Sports

From family game nights to one-on-one showdowns, how Leigha 
Brown’s tenacious desire to win guides her

LIZA CUSHNIR
Daily Sports Writer

Family game nights at the 
Brown household in Auburn, Ind. 
look a little different than most. For 
as long as Nate and Jenese Brown 
can remember, those nights always 
had the potential to be upended — 
literally — if their daughter lost.
If Leigha Brown lost any casual 
game, she’d knock the pieces off 
the board or storm out of the room. 
Her reaction wasn’t out of anger 
toward her family but frustration 
with herself. Because if there’s one 
thing that motivates Leigha, in 
every facet of her life, it’s winning. 
As Leigha grew up, board games 
gave way to a miniature basketball 
hoop at home, but still, the deter-
mination to win remained.
“Ever since she was walking, 
she just always had a competitive-
ness to her,” Nate told The Daily. 
“We had a little tiny basketball 
hoop we bought her as soon as she 
could start walking. … That turned 
into indoor pig and horse games 
between her and I, and broken pic-
ture frames. If I won, she would 
throw the basketball and go stomp-
ing out of the room.”
As she grew up, that competi-
tive spirit grew, too. It carried her 
through elementary school bas-
ketball and travel ball where she 
started playing at least one year 
up before she even entered middle 
school. It carried her through high 
school, where she was described as 
a “once in a lifetime” player by her 
DeKalb High School coach Brett 
Eltzroth.
Toward the end of Leigha’s time 
in elementary school, the Browns 
realized that their daughter was 
going to be special. Beyond play-
ing multiple years up on her travel 
teams and being the leading scorer 
on her teams year after year and 
game after game, Leigha took it 
upon herself to start watching any 
games she could get her hands on 
— her own film or whatever was on 
TV.
Ever since she was around eight, 
she would sit and watch basketball 
with her dad, and the two would 
talk about what they saw. For Nate, 

sitting and talking to his daugh-
ter about backscreens and off-ball 
movement at such a high level was 
“almost like talking to another 
adult,” even though Leigha wasn’t 
yet a middle schooler. 
In elementary school, Leigha 
attended a local basketball camp. 
There was one other kid there, a 
boy in her grade at school, who 
she had a bit of a rivalry with. The 
camp had a one-on-one tourna-
ment, and when Leigha faced off 
against her rival, her competitive 
edge and basketball IQ shined.
“She won it all, beat that boy 
one-on-one in front of everybody,” 
Nate, who coached Leigha for 
much of her life, said. “That was 
just one of those proud moments, 
that you’re like, ‘that’s my kid’, you 
know. She just beat that boy that 
was like six inches taller than her 
and beat him by like five or six, and 
it was just such a great feeling.”
That same drive carried her 
right up to a moment that her dad 
had been dreading, a day that he 
knew would come, but was still 
unprepared for. 
“She was a freshman in high 
school,” Nate said. “… I remember 
that one day when she finally did 
beat me (in a one-on-one game). 
And I just thought, you know, you 
always hope that day comes but 
then when it finally does, you’re 
like, ‘Oh crap.’ ”
And starting that freshman year, 
she developed into one of the best 
players in DeKalb High School his-
tory.
***
From the first moment she 
stepped foot into her high school 
gym, Leigha Brown’s innate com-
petitiveness was displayed. She 
would always be the first player 
there and the last to leave, putting 
up extra shots to perfect her craft.
“There were different times that 
I would put her on the opponent’s 
best post player, I’d put her on their 
best guard,” Eltzroth told The 
Daily. “She was very versatile and 
she did whatever was asked of the 
coaches.”
Eltzroth could always rely on 
Brown. Not just because she want-
ed to win, and not just because she 
was happier after a team win on a 

rare bad shooting night than when 
she put up 53 points, but because it 
was easy to see that what mattered 
most to Brown was family. And in 
addition to the crowd of people that 
would cheer her on from the side-
line every game, Brown’s team was 
also her family.
“She’s gonna care about every-
body she’s around, she’s gonna 
make everyone around her bet-
ter,” Eltzroth said. “… She’s just a 
strong character, family first type 
person, and I think that’s why she 
plays with such a passion because 
she sees her team as an extension 
of her family.”
With her intense desire to win 
driving her forward, Brown always 
made sure to lead by example. For 
all four years that he coached her, 
Eltzroth can’t remember a single 
time she lost a post-practice sprint. 
“It’s every coach’s dream to have 
someone like that, that can be a 
coach on the floor, that has that 
court vision to set people up,” Elt-
zroth said. 
Whether it was creating her own 
shot or setting one up for her team-
mates, Brown’s coaches always 
knew they could rely on her. 
“You just can’t go wrong with 
Leigha Brown because she just 
makes things happen,” Eltzroth 
praised.
Now at Michigan, Brown still 
plays the same way: with that fun-
damental desire to win and that eye 
for setting those around her up for 
success. Once again, she’s guided 
by family — both the family she 
grew up with and the team she’s 
embraced in Ann Arbor.
***
In high school, Brown commit-
ted to Nebraska, where she spent 
her first two years of college. In 
that time, she garnered significant 
accolades, including Big Ten Sixth 
Player of the Year in her sophomore 
season, in which she also led the 
team in scoring. 
For someone as family-oriented 
as Brown, however, being over a 
10-hour drive from home was dif-
ficult. And so, after her sophomore 
year, she realized she wanted to 
look at options closer to home.
As she explored those options, 
one school stood out. It was the 

team that knocked off the Corn-
huskers in the Big Ten Tourna-
ment: Michigan
“I had people come up to me 
after the (Big Ten Tournament) 
and they were like, ‘You need to 
play for a school like Michigan, 
just their culture, the way they 
interact, how hard they play, the 
passion that (Michigan coach Kim 
Barnes Arico) has,’ ” Brown said on 
Oct. 25 at Michigan Media Day. “I 
talked to some other schools in the 
transfer portal, but the whole time 
I kept telling my parents ‘It doesn’t 
compare to Michigan.’ I think the 
whole time I knew this is where I 
wanted to be.”
By coming to Ann Arbor, Brown 
was trading in a 10-hour drive from 
home for a two-hour one.
At that new home, her team-
mates, coaches and family were 
quick to praise who she is on the 
court; They were equally quick to 
praise who she is off of it, too. 
Whether it was spontaneously 
driving to Ohio to go to Waffle 
House with some teammates, 
adopting two cats or inspiring her 
younger sister to get a tattoo after 
getting her own, Brown has always 
had a knack for showing those 
around her how much she cares 
and how invested she is in creating 
memories. 
“Once she knows you care about 

her, she will do anything for you,” 
Michigan assistant coach Harry 
Rafferty said. “And she’s an amaz-
ing teammate in that sense. She’s 
amazing to coach in that sense 
because in the hardest moments, 
you know she’s going to stick by it 
and fight it out. We’re lucky to have 
her back here for her fifth year of 
college basketball and leading this 
group.”
Entering her final year at Mich-
igan, it’s easy to see why Brown 
chose to use her extra year of eligi-
bility as granted by the pandemic. 
She wants to win, and she wants to 
do so alongside her teammates. 
“I just knew that I wasn’t really 
done yet,” Brown said on Oct. 12 at 
Big Ten Media Days. “I wanted to 
continue to build myself as an indi-
vidual player, but also, I wanted to 
continue to make history with this 
team, my teammates, my coaching 
staff.”
For many players, deciding to 
return to college for a fifth year is 
a difficult decision. But for Brown, 
the decision was made early on. 
After battling through various 
injuries last season, she’s especial-
ly excited for the opportunity to 
see all her hard work pay off.
“She was the first person in my 
office (saying) ‘Coach, I need to 
talk to you,’ ” Barnes Arico said. 
“She’s like, ‘Can I come back for 

GRACE BEAL/Daily

that extra season?’ I mean, no one 
was even thinking about it at the 
time, but I was like, ‘That’s great.’ ”
Beyond having the player who 
Barnes Arico regards as “arguably 
one of the best guards in the coun-
try” back, Brown also brings years 
of experience back to the Wolver-
ines.
“She’s so driven. She wants to be 
the best at everything she does,” 
Rafferty said. “I think she raises 
the competitive spirit of her team-
mates because she’s so wired like 
that. … She has been really, really 
awesome to be able to coach so far.”
In the 2021 NCAA Tournament, 
when Michigan was in the bubble 
in San Antonio, the Wolverines 
played some low-stakes card and 
board games to pass the time. 
When Brown lost one of those 
games, she stormed out of the 
room. Because, just like when she 
was younger, if she was playing, 
she was playing to win.
When she stepped back onto the 
court, though, what happened in 
those board games never mattered. 
Because when she’s playing 
alongside her teammates, she’s 
doing everything in her power to 
make sure they win. And it’s clear 
there’s nobody she’d rather do it 
with than her family — both the 
one that raised her and the one 
she’s found along the way.

Lindsay Budin: Without Hillmon, Michigan again has a chance 
to prove that it’s a program, not a team

Standing 
at 
mid-court inside 
the Target Center 
at Big Ten Media 
Days, I surveyed 
the scene around 
me. As the players 
and coaches trick-
led out to their 
tables, a familiar 
face caught my 
eye: Michigan’s leading scorer 
from last season and one of the 
program’s all-time greats, Naz 
Hillmon.
This time, Hillmon wasn’t 
there representing the Wolver-
ines, though. Rather, she served 
as a reporter for the Big Ten Net-
work.
Instead, 
fifth-year 
forward 
Emily 
Kiser, 
fifth-year 
wing 
Leigha Brown and sophomore 

guard Laila Phelia took the podi-
um. None of the representatives 
put up Hillmon-like numbers last 
year, but all three served as key 
players in Michigan’s best season 
in program history.
Following that historic season, 
where they reached the Elite Eight 
for the first time, and Hillmon’s 
departure to the WNBA, the Wol-
verines enter the 2022-23 season 
with a massive hole to fill. With 
that gap, many people’s belief in 
the team’s ability to recapture that 
success has seemingly dissipated.
But Michigan isn’t a team built 
around one player. The Wolver-
ines’ identity is rooted in their 
emphasis of developing a program. 
Even in the wake of losing a player 
who contributed 21 points and 9.6 
rebounds per game, my outlook on 
that remains steadfast. 

And it is an outlook one you 
should buy into as well.
“When I first came here, it was 
like ‘Can we build a program?’ 
” Michigan coach Kim Barnes 
Arico said at Michigan Media Day 
on Oct. 25. “… Michigan women’s 
basketball aspired to be that, a 
program, one that was consistent 
year in and year out. And that is 
the goal of our team every single 
season. We lost an incredible play-
er, an incredible representation of 
this university in Naz Hillmon. 
But we have some really special 
pieces returning.”
The Wolverines are more than 
Hillmon, and this season, they 
have the pieces to prove that. For 
Michigan to show what it’s capa-
ble of, however, it needs to solid-
ify an identity. If the Wolverines 
can’t, they’ll fall short of reaching 

the same feats they did the previ-
ous year.
Last season, their identity cen-
tered around Hillmon, and replac-
ing what she brings to this team 
— both on and off the court — is a 
daunting task. More importantly, 
though, it’s a task that cannot be 
done with a singular player and a 
challenge Michigan has encoun-
tered before. 
Entering the 2018-19 season, 
the Wolverines’ primary task was 
figuring out how to compensate 
for the graduation of star player 
Katelynn Flaherty — the all-time 
leading scorer in both men’s and 
women’s Michigan basketball his-
tory. 
Following Flaherty’s depar-
ture, Barnes Arico focused on 
maintaining the team in front of 
her and developing burgeoning 

talent instead of dwelling on past 
triumph. That year, a new star 
emerged: then-freshman Hill-
mon. 
Since then, Barnes Arico has 
proven that the Wolverines aren’t 
a team. They’re a program.
Michigan added three fresh-
men this offseason: guard Kate 
Clarke 
and 
forwards 
Alyssa 
Crockett and Chyra Evans. While 
the three have impressed early 
and flashed potential ahead of the 
season, it’s unrealistic to expect 
any of them to round into a Hillm-
on-caliber player.
And that’s OK.
The Wolverines don’t need a 
new star — they need a group that 
collectively can cultivate the skill 
and leadership abilities Hillmon 
brought.
That reinforces the narra-
tive behind Michigan’s ongoing 
vision: Its program isn’t formed 
because of a player, but its players 
formed because of the program. 
This season, the Wolverines are 
ready to prove that again. Already, 
their leaders have bought in. 
“I think we’re all trying to, as 
upperclassmen, as people who just 
play on the court, trying to pick 
(the leadership) up,” Kiser said. “ 
… You know, we pride ourselves a 
lot on just our team culture, and 
instilling hard work at setting that 
example from the start.”
As Michigan develops its iden-
tity, the role Kiser and Brown play 
in that quest will be imperative to 
its success. Both of the fifth-years 
held an important leadership 
position in last year’s team. If the 
Wolverines want to find similar 
success this season, though, the 
pair need to bring even stronger 
captaincy now. 
In many ways, having two 
strong leaders and a plethora of 
talent offers more benefits in the 
long run, far more than the team 
single-player structure Michigan 
had last year. Although Hillmon’s 
abilities basically guaranteed a 
significant amount of production 

every contest, it also made the 
Wolverines over reliant on her 
abilities in the post. 
So, as a strong program does, 
Michigan retooled its roster with 
a renewed emphasis on shooting. 
In addition to Kiser and Brown, 
senior guard Maddie Nolan has 
already showcased her shooting 
abilities and will take on an even 
greater role this season. The Wol-
verines also added a former All-
American — the first in program 
history — transfer in sophomore 
guard 
Greta 
Kampschroeder, 
whose impressive shooting will be 
vital in their transition from last 
year’s post-dominated offense. 
Without Hillmon in the post 
this season, Michigan may find 
itself without some of the easy 
layups and boards it got last year, 
but her absence also enables it to 
expand its repertoire. In doing so, 
the Wolverines can balloon their 
identity beyond a single player 
and embrace the program-based 
mentality that got them where 
they are now.
“I think that’s really important, 
that we’re not going to be as one 
dimensional — as Naz-dimension-
al, as we should call it,” Barnes 
Arico said. “We will have mul-
tiple people that can do multiple 
things, and I think it’s going to 
be really important to keep their 
confidence and aggressive men-
tality.”
This mentality doesn’t seem 
to be going anywhere since Hill-
mon’s departure. In fact, the 
confidence can fuel Michigan 
this year and help it develop its 
post-Hillmon identity. An iden-
tity centered around its greater 
versatility that stems from incom-
ing talent, returning leaders and 
strong shooting. 
Because the Wolverines don’t 
need transcendent talent, they 
need a transcendent program. 
Finding success this year, with-
out a generational star, would be 
proof they can make that goal a 
reality.

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

EMMA MATI/Daily

WOMEN’S BASKETBALL

LINDSAY
BUDIN

