Maliq Brown continued making winning plays in Duke’s rout of Syracuse
As he has all season, former SU forward Maliq Brown made winning plays in Duke’s rout over the Orange. Meghan Hendricks | Daily Orange File Photo
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DURHAM, N.C. — Maliq Brown ended his sophomore year as a player that Adrian Autry wanted to build his program around. He instead entered the transfer portal and joined conference rival Duke, where he’s become a key reserve for Jon Scheyer over the last two years.
“It’s been good,” Brown said postgame after the Blue Devils blew out the Orange on Monday about his evolution since transferring. “They’re working me with good arms, making me better at pouring off the court, and I’ve been enjoying it.”
Brown’s 4.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game may not jump off the page, but his 7.02 EvanMiya Bayesian Performance Rating makes him Duke’s fourth-most valuable player. For comparison’s sake, the Orange’s most valuable player is Naithan George with a 5.12 BPR.
While Brown’s usage and minutes are down since transferring from SU to the Blue Devils, he’s found himself as a perfect complementary player on a Final Four team last season and a national championship-hopeful team this year.
“Just doing what my team needs, what my coaches need me to do,” Brown said of what his role is. “Trusting my game, my work, and just going out there and doing anything my team needs me to do to win.”
And why is that so important?
“We got some big goals, just like last year, this year, we got some big goals,” the senior forward said. “So just trying to do anything we can to get the team goals where we want to be.”
Though he had a slow first half in his second-ever game against SU, Brown stuffed the stat sheet with six points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Brown’s best stretch came midway through the second half, when he first pulled down a defensive rebound before assisting a Patrick Ngongba dunk that gave the Blue Devils a 72-43 lead at the 10:35 mark.
On the ensuing possession, Brown clamped Syracuse star Donnie Freeman and picked his pocket. He then went coast-to-coast for a dunk that extended the lead to 31 points.
Roughly four minutes later, Brown threw down an alley-oop before notching a steal on the next possession, which led to Darren Harris drawing a foul on a fast break.
Nothing about what Brown did was flashy, but he made winning plays as Duke coasted to an easy win.
The Brown the Orange faced on Monday is much different from when Brown was part of the program, as J.J. Starling is the lone player still on the team. Brown said that he’s “boys” with all of his Syracuse teammates and said they’re all “still brothers.”
Regarding whether it was good to see his former head coach, Adrian Autry, Brown said, “Definitely, it’s always good to see everybody.”
But in the end, it was a bit better for Brown as Duke further cemented itself as the best team in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Syracuse made it that much harder to snap its four-year NCAA Tournament skid.
