By Pk Bartley
Eric Brown is ready to embark on his third and final season as amember of the University of Louisville’s basketball team. Brown,who is listed as a guard and a forward, feels comfortable playingboth positions.
“Both positions are kind of the same,” says Brown. “They’re bothon the perimeter. My natural position is a small forward, but Ialso like playing the two. I just like the title of swing manbecause it gives me the option of playing two positions.”
Brown’s goals for the season are more for the team than forhimself. “I want to improve on my all-around game and be adefensive stopper. I want to be the guy who guards the opponent’stoughest player on the perimeter. I want to get the chance to playin the post season before I get out of college. And if thathappens, I want to cherish every moment of that opportunity. Ifwe’re able to get into the tournament, I would like for us to godeep into the tournament.” U of L head coach Rick Pitino feels thatBrown is improving, “All he needs to do better right now is reboundthe ball according to the size of his body. If he does that, Ibelieve he’ll have an excellent senior year.”
In the time that Brown has spent here at Louisville, his gamehas definitely improved. “I think he’s improved his defensetremendously,” said Pitino. “He’s improved his passing, which alsoneeded to improve. But now, he just needs to become a betterrebounder.”
“I have learned more about shot selection,” says Brown. “Withinthe last year, I’ve improved on getting my teammates shots. In oursystem, we like to penetrate and draw the defense in and kick itout for the guys to get an open shot. My defense has come a longway, but there’s still room for improvement.”
The numbers do show that Brown’s defense has improved from hisfirst year at U of L. In the 2000-2001 season, Brown had a total of15 steals, and last year, Brown had 40 steals.
With more depth this year, both Brown and the Cardinals’ gameswill be taken to a new level. “Our depth will help the team overallas a whole,” Brown states. “There won’t be any days of slacking offduring practice, because if you do slack off, it’ll cut off intoyour playing time. Every practice will be very physical, but thatis just going to help make everybody on the team better. We’ll allbe pushing one another and trying to take each other’s positions. Ithink it’s going to be a lot fun.”
Despite the team’s depth, Brown believes he’ll be able to play alot of minutes this year. “I think this is the year that a lot ofspecial things will start to happen. I want to be on the court fora lot of that.”
Brown believes that this year, U of L matches up well with theother teams in Conference USA. “You still have your traditionalpowers like Cincinnati and Marquette, but I believe we can be oneof the top four teams in the conference this year. Also, during thelong conference season, a lot could happen, but at the end, I lookfor us to be in the middle of the pack, competing.”
After graduation, Brown feels he has a lot of options.”Hopefully, I can have a break out year, have a shot at the pros,or I could play pro ball overseas. My main goal is to definitelyplay professional basketball after college. When I get my degree, Icould still go into the workforce. So the way I see it, I stillhave three options. I can go to the NBA, play overseas, or use mydegree to enter the workforce.” Hopefully, both Brown and theCardinals can achieve all their goals this year and make it deepinto the NCAA tournament.
