Princeton University Athletics
Players Mentioned
The Reluctant Hoopster
December 12, 2005 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 12, 2005
This feature story appeared in the game program for the Dec. 11 game against Rutgers at Jadwin Gym.
By Andrew Borders
Princeton Office of Athletic Communications
Becky Brown wasn't sure she wanted to play college basketball. Soon, she will be one of the top scorers in Princeton history.
Funny how things work out sometimes.
During her senior year at Harpeth Hall Academy in Nashville, Tenn., Brown had little interest in the few recruiters who came her way, mostly from small schools around the South. Basketball was fun and a big part of her life, but it was a high school thing. Once in college, she planned on being only the first half of the hyphenated title she now has: student-athlete.
"People from my high school didn't go on to play Division I basketball," Brown says. "I didn't know much about the recruiting process. The idea of an official visit was really unknown to me."
But then Richard Barron, who was the head coach at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., through her sophomore year at Harpeth Hall and knew of her in local recruiting circles, tried his luck at being one of the few recruiters to whom Brown paid attention. She usually just let her father take such calls. Barron offered one of those official visits and Brown accepted, coming to watch Princeton top Columbia, 73-72 in overtime late in the 2002 season. Of course, it wouldn't be the last Princeton victory in which Brown would take part.
It seems odd that a player with the talent to be among the best centers in school history would wonder if she even wanted to play in college. Though it took some convincing, Brown's decision to continue her career has done wonders for the Tigers. In the 2002-03 season, Brown played every game, all 28, averaging 24.4 minutes a contest and scoring 14.9 points per game, even a little bit better average than this season's 13.5 per night. With all those minutes and 15 points a game, the climb up Princeton's all-time scoring chart began. She scored 417 points as a rookie, putting her on pace for 1,668 points, just short of the 1,683 Sandi Bittler '90 accumulated for tops in Tiger annals. But into her sophomore season, as Barron began bringing in the players he hoped would lead him to Ivy titles, Brown's point totals went down just enough to take her off record pace. She scored 385 points as a sophomore and 359 as a junior, giving her 1,161 heading into this season, good for 10th place on the all-time list.
Does the record matter to her?
Brown gives a politic response, appropriate of a politics major. She passes the buck, or rather, the computer mouse.
"My dad always tells me where I am [on the list]. It would be nice, but it's better to be on a team that's winning. If you can score 1,200 points in your career and lose, that's no fun," Brown says.
She passed the 1,200-point mark at St. Mary's on Nov. 25 and was up to 1,242 heading into the Army game, good for seventh place all-time. Today, she'll likely pass the 1,275 points had by Ellen Tomasiewicz '82 for sixth. Given her 13.5 per-game average, Brown should be in third place without too much trouble during the Ivy season, just the third Tiger in history to score 1,500 points.
Brown has come a long way since her rookie year in more ways than her ascent into Princeton history and the distance from her hometown. As a senior, she embraces a leadership role well suited for her, on and off the court. It extends from the practice floor to the team bus to game night, her physical presence - every bit of 6-foot-2 - and a deep, distinctive voice useful for everything from encouragement to direction to reminding everyone to take her things from the bus. On the court, she leads with her play as well. Somehow, even though she's been well-known in Ivy circles for three-plus seasons now, she still gets it done the way most high-scoring centers rack up the points. Ball into the post, Brown, with her back to the basket. Back in, back in, turn, shoot, two points. It's so automatic, it's predictable. But somehow, she's been able to keep it working into her fourth season, and it has paid rich dividends early in the 2005-06 campaign. The Tigers are off to the best start in Brown's career and could reach heights not seen since Brown was in sixth grade.
"This year is different because when we have a bad first half, like we did against Colgate or Monmouth, we know we're better than that and we can come out in the second half and turn things around," Brown says.
That belief has made the difference between the Tigers beating the teams they're supposed to beat and allowing those teams to escape with wins.
This season is also different because of someone else who is on the team. After coming from Tennessee, bringing her customs of simple Southern hospitality and a hint of an accent with her, Brown recalled some lighthearted teasing from her new northern compatriots. Now, she has a fellow Nashvillian on the team in freshman Whitney Downs, another graduate of Harpeth Hall. However, though the two graduated from the same school, they aren't the third set of high school teammates on the Princeton roster. Downs attended a rival school, Battle Ground Academy, before transferring to Harpeth Hall after Brown left for Old Nassau.
Having experience with another high school program, Downs would likely echo the experiences that Brown had in girls' basketball in Tennessee, a phenomenon that could be likened to lacrosse in the Mid-Atlantic region or hockey in the upper midwest.
"The girls would have their game after the boys, like the boys would be the warm-up game," Brown says.
To be sure, many of those girls dream of playing at the state's flagship school, the University of Tennessee, known just as UT in the state splashed with Volunteer orange. They think about having Pat Summitt as their coach, the winningest coach in college basketball history. Brown even recalls a time when Summitt came to speak at her school, with Brown taking the opportunity to get Summitt's autograph on a shirt. The two will have the opportunity to reunite later this month when Princeton pays a visit to Knoxville. Brown can only describe the experience that her teammates will feel first-hand nine days from today.
"It's going to be surreal. I grew up watching Tennessee, in awe of what that program has done. We're going to be playing in front of more than 10,000 people and I think that's an experience we can bring back to Princeton. It was like when Meg [Cowher] went to try out for the national team [to play in the U19 World Championship and World University Games]. Playing in that kind of environment will help us when we're in tough games during the Ivy League season," Brown says.
Perhaps Cowher can help prepare the team for both of December's most difficult games, today against Rutgers and the battle down at Thompson-Boling Arena. Rutgers' Essence Carson and Cappie Pondexter and Tennessee's Nicky Anosike were among the 60 invited to try out.
It will be an experience, for sure. The Lady Vols are ranked No. 1 in the nation, pushing aside their opponents by an average of 25 points. The closest any team has come to topping the Lady Vols through their first eight games has been Maryland, sneaking within five points of Summitt's squad.
No matter how the Tennessee trip turns out, the Tigers will return to Old Nassau and begin the 2006 Ivy season a few weeks after knocking around with the Lady Vols in Knoxville. Brown will have her final shot at an Ivy League title, something not seen at Princeton since a co-championship and a one-game playoff loss to Dartmouth in 1999, and not had outright since 1978, before there was an NCAA Tournament.
And regardless of how the on-court pursuits of a conference title and an all-time school scoring title turn out, Brown will have her future to attend to once the last twine has been tickled in March. Much like how she was four years ago, the self-predicted Southern sorority-girl-to-be (had basketball not intervened) isn't totally sure what she wants to do once the clock on her career has hit zero.
"Well, I'm a politics major," she explains. "I worked on Capitol Hill during the summer, so I'd like to work with the government. After college, I'd love to travel. I'll probably live near New York City so I don't have to give up the college life just yet. I'm not quite ready."
Her job in Washington, D.C. placed her as an intern with the House Financial Services Committee, necessitating her to learn about the United States' monetary policy and such worldwide agencies as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. She also got to sit in on hearings with the outgoing Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan, making her one of the very few people who are able to dissect both a Greenspan lecture on interest rates and the complicated "Princeton offense," which Barron ran for Brown's first three years in Orange and Black.
From learning about the kind of green that helps the United States work to the Big Green of Dartmouth that figures to stand between Princeton and a perch atop the Ivy League, Brown is an example of the kind of experience that a Princeton student-athlete has during her college career. And just as she finds herself in a similar place now as at the end of her high school days, not sure what lies ahead, she hopes for another similarity between Harpeth Hall and Princeton.
"When we went to the state tournament as a sophomore, people laughed. Now, it's expected," Brown recalls.
With Princeton off to its fast start this year, starting another tradition of success would be a welcome parting gift.