The University of Alabama at Birmingham Athletics
Transfer Robert Brown Brings ACC Experience To Young UAB Roster
10/23/2014 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
By Steve Irvine
UABSports.com
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Robert Brown took a year away from playing basketball games after arriving at UAB. But that doesn’t mean the 6-foot-5, 185-pound Florida native took a year away from basketball.
On the contrary, Brown worked as hard as ever on his game while sitting out the season after transferring from Virginia Tech. It just didn’t come with the payoff of game time.
“The motivation was just love of the game and knowing the next year I will play,” said Brown. “Knowing I had Coach (Rob) Ehsan, who I had worked with at Tech, and knowing his background and how he likes to work, I knew I was going to come in and get better.”
He also got to know strength and conditioning coach Cory Schlesinger very well.
“I really enjoy working with him and I’ve spent a lot of time with him getting stronger,” said Brown, who has two seasons of remaining eligibility. “I haven’t gained too much weight. I’ve gained a couple pounds but, more than anything, I’ve gotten stronger. My core has gotten stronger, my upper body is stronger, I’ll be able to handle more pounding on the court.”
Brown has yet to play a minute in a regular season game at UAB yet he is still one of the more experienced and accomplished players on a young Blazer roster. He was a three-year varsity player at East Ridge High in Clermont, Florida, averaging 21 points in his final season. He enrolled at Hargrave Military Academy, at the request of then-Virginia Tech head coach Seth Greenberg, and averaged 18 points and seven rebounds while playing for now-UNC-Wilmington head coach Kevin Keatts.
“(Keatts’) system was more of a college system,” Brown said. “The things he taught were more college like. Coming into college, I was a little bit more mature and knew more things as freshman coming in.”
Life at the military academy also had something to do with that.
“It’s a lot different,” Brown said. “The military aspect is one difference - just coming in, having to wake up early every morning, have study hall every night, have to go to all your classes, your meals are structured. There is so much structure. It definitely helps you mature. You don’t have as much freedom but it helps when you’re on your own.”
He fit well into the college game immediately at Virginia Tech. Brown played in all 33 games as a true freshman, making four starts. He was fifth on the team in scoring with 6.8 per game and second on the team in assists (64) and steals (25). He concluded the season by tying for team-high honors with 16 points in a 60-56 ACC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Duke.
As a sophomore, he averaged 8.3 points while playing in 31 games with 25 starts. He had 15 points and five assists in the season opener against ETSU and had the game-winning shot in an ACC win over Wake Forest.
The school made a coaching change following Brown’s sophomore season and he made the difficult decision to transfer. Eventually, he chose UAB, in part because of his previous relationship with Ehsan and in part because it moved him closer to his Florida home.
“Coming here has been a fantastic decision, not only for myself but for my game,” Brown said. “I’ve been able to go home more often, I love the staff here and Birmingham is a fantastic place to be.”
One of the primary tasks during his first year at UAB was becoming a more consistent shooter.
“That was a huge thing we worked on, kind of just changing my jump shot and taking out some of the unnecessary movements to make it more consistent,” Brown said. “We just kind of restructured it to fit my game and the strength I’ve added has helped a lot.”
Time will tell if Brown can become a go-to scorer for UAB. He has the ability but UAB head coach Jerod Haase said that role is up for grabs heading into the season.
“It needs to be earned,” Haase said. “We have a variety of guys who have some talent and have done some nice things at different schools or in high school or whatever. C.J. Washington is the one guy who has proven that he can produce on this level consistently. Robert Brown has competed in the ACC, has had a great career to this point, but I told him he has to start from scratch right now and earn the respect and earn the trust from the guys. I hope to have a player or two or three or five than can be kind of centerpieces and big-time players in what we’re doing.”
Brown is striving to reach that role but he’s also content in doing everything that’s asked of him.
“Really I’ll just do whatever they need from me,” Brown said. “C.J. is our returning leading scorer. If he can go out there and get us 20 points a game and leads us in scoring then I’ll do whatever he doesn’t do or whatever the team needs to pick up the slack.”
