Brown finds new home at USU
Transfers are not uncommon in the world of college athletics. It’s a whole other thing to see one step into a program and dominate from the get-go, but that’s precisely what junior post player Ashlee Brown has done so far this season for the Utah State women’s basketball team.
Brown, who redshirted with the Aggies last season before the NCAA permitted her to take her skills to games this year, currently leads the team in both scoring and rebounding, at 13.7 points and 8.7 boards per game. Not only that, but she’s helped the Aggies achieve single-game school records in both field-goal percentage (60.8 percent in an 80-66 win at Utah Valley) and blocked shots (14 at home in a win against Boise State). Above all, she’s steered the team to a 6-7 non-conference mark and a conference-opening win over Boise that may indicate that the Aggies will be better than a projected near-the-bottom-of-the-barrel WAC finish in the preseason polls.
Those marks all exist because of a critical decision Brown made in 2009 in leaving UC-Santa Barbara, a team that she eventually played regularly with during the Gauchos’ run to the NCAA Tournament both years the Chandler, Ariz. native was attending school in the Sunshine State.
But then, the Gauchos saw a new sheriff come to town. Enter April 3, 2008 as a date that set in motion events to bring Brown to Logan.
Longtime head coach Mark French, who spent 21 years leading UC-Santa Barbara to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances and recruited Brown, retired and was replaced by former Cal-Berkeley assistant Lindsay Gottlieb. After one season experiencing a completely overhauled coaching staff, changes were also in order for Brown.
“For me as a player and as a young woman growing, I thought it was best (to transfer),” said the 6-footer, who plays both power forward and center. “I had to grow before coming to a place socially and religiously this different.”
Her time as a Gaucho is something that Brown feels helped both her character and her game going forward, and that perhaps she had some lessons to learn before bringing such a needed skill set to USU on both ends of the floor.
Not that the Aggies didn’t want her coming out of Chandler High School, said Aggie head coach Raegan Pebley.
So what kept her from jumping right into the Spectrum from the get-go?
“An immature fear caused me to go (to UCSB),” Brown said. “You realize coming out of high school how big this decision is. You realize how much nightlife means to you, that parties come and go. I wanted certain academics, team, style of play, coaching staff, and offensive and defensive style.”
For Brown, it’s “check all the above” so far in Logan.
That “style of play” requirement was a mantra echoed by both coach and player.
“The offense here suits me well,” Brown said. “I’ve had my ups and downs and I’m trying to get there.”
For Pebley, it’s an array of skills that makes Brown such a threat from various spots on the court.
“We value her versatility,” Pebley said. “Her coach (at UCSB) used her as a post, point guard, wing, and that helped develop her game to be a total package as a player. We also like having point forwards at the 4 (power forward position).”
Even off the court, Brown has always been charm to her coach.
“I loved her as a person, too, talking to her on the phone, everything,” Pebley said of recruiting Brown. “I love her family. Sometimes with transfers, you have a concern that they will also transfer problems into your program. But we had a good feeling of what we were seeing from her. (At the time of the transfer), we asked her tough questions. I asked her if she wasn’t going to transfer problems to the program. I felt good about her honesty. I felt like she made the right reasons for coming here.”
Giving credit for her success to teammates is only a further indication that Brown only came to Utah with the purest of intentions.
“Without the players I have here – with (center) Banna (Diop), at 6-foot-6 and with her hands up, who’s to say that she does not open up things? Bam (forward Amber White) on a pull-up; (guard) Dev (Christensen) from outside – I wouldn’t be allowed to get the looks. The open looks comes due to the bench, everybody. I’m not the one making the passes.”
It’s a graciousness that, Pebley said, comes along with a discovered confidence since Brown’s transfer.
“Ever since she was a freshman, she was so deficient in her confidence,” said Pebley. “I don’t think I’d seen a player who was that talented, yet lacked so much confidence. She worked very hard, and wanted to lay a foundation that was very solid.”
Pebley said Brown was able to build her house upon a rock largely because of a team that Brown herself repeatedly called “family.”
“Having positive relationships around her all day has gone a long way to help her,” Pebley said.
Brown said family support comes from both near and far. Her blood relatives were quite understanding of a move that almost rivals her soft-touch right baby hook.
“In the end, my family knew that I had to do the best thing for me,” she said. “They have always factored in my life and I love and respect them, but they were in support of the best options for me.”
Options that have helped Brown grown into a leader. In her first year of playing eligibility at Utah State, she has been named co-captain with seniors Alice Coddington and White. Options that, at this rate, could lead to some big accomplishments both individually for Brown and for the team that she guides as the season draws nearer to all-important March.
“Transferring was a tough process, either way, choosing a second school. I’ve gone from high school, to never leaving the bench, to getting sixth-woman of the year (her sophomore year at UCSB), to not playing (as a redshirt transfer), to now playing again, it allows me to help lead because I can relate to just about any roll on a team.”
– rhett.wilkinson@aggiemail.usu.edu