Brooks: Brown 'Points' Toward Long-Awaited Return

BOULDER - The term is "sitting out a transfer season," but rarely is there any sitting done. That certainly was the case last winter when Carlon Brown, a recent transfer from Utah, joined the Colorado men's basketball team. His season-in-waiting was spent productively.

Brown's back story:

Looking to the near future, when at least three of their top four scorers (and probably all four) would be gone, the Buffs got a line on Brown from assistant Jean Prioleau. Before joining Tad Boyle's CU staff prior to last season, "JP" had been an assistant at TCU, where he watched Brown play for the Utes during a couple of seasons in the Mountain West Conference.

A casual relationship developed that Prioleau was able to successfully work when Brown decided to leave Salt Lake City after the 2009-10 season. Among the Buffs' selling points was this: We're going to need a scorer.

"It was one of the first things that we talked about when I came in for my visit," Brown recalled on Wednesday. "They told me Alec (Burks) possibly would leave (for the NBA) and obviously Cory (Higgins) was graduating. So they needed somebody to fill in that two guard or that wing spot.

"(Prioleau) gave coach Boyle some film to watch, got coach to trust in me. When I got here and they put it in my hands and said play your best, just play your game."

Both of which the athletic 6-5 Brown set about doing. In practice, teammates said, no one would have known Brown was "sitting out" the mandatory NCAA transfer season. He was all work, all the time.

"He could have come in and thought it was a year off, kind of relax and not worry about anything," senior forward Austin Dufault said. "But after losses, he was almost as disappointed as we were because he'd put in such hard work trying to help us prepare for every game. He really came in with the right attitude, and that got everybody's respect.

"It was tough on him not being able to play. I think all guys who redshirt hit a wall, but he never did - he came to play every day and was excited to go up against Cory and Alec to try and make them better. He never gave those guys a day off, and he's brought that same attitude this year. He's worked extremely hard and has been very professional about everything. I really look for him to pick up some of that scoring we lost from last year."

With Burks, Higgins, Levi Knutson and Marcus Relphorde gone, Boyle's team loses just over 75 percent of its point production. Seniors Brown, Dufault and point guard Nate Tomlinson are being counted on to score, as well as sophomores Andre Roberson and Jeremy Adams (a junior college transfer) and freshmen Spencer Dinwiddie and Askia Booker.

Whoever the top scorer is and whatever the scoring combination might be, Boyle sees it developing through an evolutionary process. From watching Brown last winter in practice, Boyle already has pegged him as "a scorer . . . he can put the ball on the floor and shoot the three. He does a lot of good things. I think (he) will make up for some of it, how much I don't know."

But Brown is capable, maybe as much due to a change of scenery as anything else. Brown underwent "a little bit of a rebirth . . . emotionally and mentally" upon arriving in Boulder, said Boyle. "He's very competitive. Going against Cory, Alec or Levi, whoever, he had to bring it. Those guys were high-level players. That helped him to stay on edge. But Carlon is talented enough and there were certain days where he would get going offensively and other guys had to stop him. He was a great practice player."

Brown played in 98 games for Utah, starting 75 and averaging 8.7 points. He reached double figures 43 times for the Utes. And Dufault claims Brown's athleticism might take some by surprise: "The first time we were playing pickup, he was just kind of jogging along up the court and all of a sudden he just took off and did a tomahawk dunk . . . it kind of comes out of nowhere with him. You don't really expect it, then he takes off (for the rim) or pulls up deep. His athleticism is something I think people might not know about him."

So what is being asked of Brown in a potential scorer's role certainly isn't too much. Boyle also wants Tomlinson to turn up the aggression offensively - "He's a pass-first guy; it's in his DNA" - and Dufault to continue to build on the high level of confidence he's playing with now.

"You always have to look at your seniors first - and those three guys I think all need to take scoring roles," Boyle said. "That doesn't mean they have to get 20 a night, but they need to be aggressive offensively."

As for the newcomers - Dinwiddie, Booker and Adams - Boyle says "the young guys come in and sometimes don't know any better . . . I think (scoring) is going to come from a lot of different areas. Like most seasons with most teams, it's going to evolve.

"We're going to have more balance this year; you can see it in practice. The ball moves a little freer, it doesn't stop, stick and isn't put on the floor quite as much. We're still going to attack the rim, but I think we'll be more balanced."

When Brown left Utah, there was no Pac-12 Conference. Now, his former and current schools are members. But the opportunity to play the Utes at least twice in his final season of eligibility doesn't create the personal buzz you might think.

"It creates more buzz for the media than it does for me," Brown said. "I'm looking forward to playing everybody in the Pac-12, not anybody in particular. It's an opportunity for me to play back home in California, up north (he's from Riverside). We also play some great schools in Arizona, Washington and Oregon . . ."

The Buffs won a school-record 24 games last season (18 at home) and went to the semifinals of the NIT in New York. All well and good, noted Brown, but this Buffs team is looking to fashion its own identity: "Obviously, (the NIT run) creates some momentum for some of the guys, but we're looking at this as a new team. In some of the preseason polls, we're picked at the bottom of the Pac-12. This team hasn't accomplished anything; we have to build our own identity this year . . .

"You always use the lack of support, the lack of belief (people have in you) as motivation for the season. You try and prove the doubters, the non-believers, wrong. That's not necessarily what we're trying to do; we're trying to be the best team we can be from November to March - and not have that same Selection Sunday experience we had last year."

Brown began practice earlier this month with the goal of "trying to be the best player I can be every night, be consistent with my play and leadership and bring toughness to this team so we can have similar results to last year."

Guarding Burks and Higgins last season in practice helped him with his defense - "They tested me every day" - but he came to work this October wanting to sharpen those skills. He also wanted to improve his shot - "And I think that's coming along really well," he said. "I've been able to knock down some shots in practice. I feel like a key contributor on this team, one of the go-to guys."

More than anything else, though, he's ecstatic to have that season-in-limbo behind him. It's been a little more than a year and a half since he's played in an actual game. The wait has been interminable.

"I'm ready to go," he said. "There's nothing like sitting out a year and missing something that you love doing every day. I'm just looking forward to the opportunity. I know our fans are excited to see us; there's a buzz around here about Colorado basketball."

Contact: BG.Brooks@Colorado.EDU