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by Michael Whiteside

January 22nd, 2003

It should come as little surprise that Andre Brown, a 6-9 junior power forward who led DePaul in rebounding last year (9.4 rpg) and set a Conference USA record with 27 caroms in a game versus TCU during that same season, is once again the Blue Demons’ leading rebounder for the 2002-03 campaign. However, what may be surprising is the fact that Brown is DePaul’s top rebounder this year at 8.5 rpg despite having started only three of the 13 games in which he has participated this season.

Brown, who was a pre-season first team all-conference selection, suffered a knee injury before the start of the season that caused him to miss most of the team’s early practice schedule and both exhibition games. He also was forced to sit it out as the rest of his teammates opened the regular season with a 63-48 win at Northern Illinois.

For Brown, a former McDonald’s high school All-American, it wasn’t easy to watch from the sidelines while waiting for his knee to heal. “It was very difficult knowing I can’t be out there with my team, but I learned to adjust to that,” said Brown. “I was a little impatient in coming back off my knee injury but now that I’m back, I feel more comfortable than I did in the beginning. But I would say that it was frustrating.”

Although Brown’s knee bounced back sufficiently to allow him to play in the Blue Demons’ second regular-season contest, he initially showed signs of rust and struggled to find a way to fit his game into new coach Dave Leitao’s system. Coming off the bench, Brown shot a combined 3 for 13 from the field in his first two outings after returning to the line-up. In the next game against Ohio University, Leitao inserted Brown into the starting line-up, but he only managed to score five points in making just two out of his 11 field goal attempts. After the ill-fated offensive performance versus Ohio, Brown was removed from the starting line-up and returned to his reserve role off the bench.

For the next eight games as a reserve, Brown continued to work to regain his rhythm and adjust to Leitao’s new way of doing things. “That was a long process,” said Brown. “I’m still kind of in the building process, but that was a long battle getting my timing together and learning the plays. But I learned to adjust to that, and I became more patient with Coach and my teammates and they made it easier for me.” Despite not starting, Brown kept his head up and had a breakout effort with a season-high 20 points (on 8-12 shooting from the field) and 11 rebounds (including eight offensive boards) in a 75-70 loss to UNLV. That performance earned Brown a spot back in the starting line-up for the next game against TCU and that was followed by another start versus East Carolina.

So what has Brown learned from this experience? “Never take anything for granted because it can be taken away from you at any time,” said Brown. “It was pretty hard coming off the bench, but each day I worked hard in practice…I’m like that last guy on the bench, I have to work my way up.”

Brown appreciates the way Leitao gave him the opportunity to work his way through his early struggles. “He [Leitao] has been patient with me and he tells me all the time, ‘it’s gonna come, it’s gonna come.’ It’s a good thing I had a good game against UNLV because that kind of got the monkey off my back,” said Brown. “Now, I feel more comfortable and more loose. I feel like every time I’m out there now, I’m unstoppable. So I just take that to heart and just go with it.”

According to Leitao, Brown is progressing just about the way he expected. “Overall I’m happy, especially now, because he’s rounding back to 100% in all phases,” said Leitao. “What he and I talked about was that there were going to be three parts to his progress. One was to get healthy again and get his knee back to where it’s 100% sound, and he doesn’t have to think about it. The second part is to connect with the new system we had put in and get caught up to speed with how we’re going to play defense and the plays we have to run. Not only knowing that, but then a certain comfort level where you can succeed in that. And then the third piece is his own personal game, restoring confidence and faith, and moving without having to think and just playing naturally…reactions and cuts and those kinds of things.”

Leitao went on to say: “It’s just in the last ten days or so that I think all three of those are basically by us where he feels like he’s 100% returned back to where he was before he was injured.”

Now that Brown has started to get his legs back under him, Leitao’s next goal is to help Brown further refine his still developing offensive game and become more reliable at the foul line (he is shooting 57.9% from the charity stripe this season up from 55.8% last year). “He’s more of an athlete who comes with energy and can jump and run and cut and do all of those things,” said Leitao. “My goal for him is to be just as good in the skill portion, which he’s learning how to do. To be able to have touch around the basket to make all those close shots. Obviously, when it comes to free throws, to make those and face-up jump shots. That’s just a product of work, and you’ve got to continue to do that if you’re going to be a very good player.”

Even as an unfinished product, Brown’s contributions have helped spur DePaul to a 10-4 record (2-1 in C-USA), which is one more game than the team won all of last year under now departed coach, Pat Kennedy. Imagine what could be accomplished next season with a completely healthy and improved Andre Brown in the line-up for the entire year.

E-Mail the Author: Michael Whiteside