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