“I feel like it’s been a mental battle with myself, just the adjustment of coming into college and the pace of the game and coach (Scott Nagy) preaching to me about my defense,” he said.
“There’s just a lot of different things you have to deal with. Coach is just telling me to keep my head up and play confident all the time, and that’s what I’m trying to do.”
The 6-foot guard may feel at times as if he’s cramming for a test, but he’s handling his duties so far just fine.
He averaged 24.1 points last season for Grand Rapids Catholic Central, and he was named the Associated Press Division II player of the year in Michigan.
He plays with a high motor, which is why he’s climbed the depth chart and cracked the eight-man rotation, averaging 11.4 minutes per game.
“I feel like it’s been going good. It’s been an adjustment for me coming from high school to college, just trying to find my role on the team, finding what the coaches need me to do,” said Brown, who’s averaging 3.4 points.
“I feel like I bring intensity and energy on defense. Coach tells me to slow down (on offense), and I’m getting better at that. Hopefully, I can get the shooting down.”
He was deadly from 3-point range in high school, hitting almost 40% and making a school-record 204 for his career.
But that part of his game has lagged behind. He’s hitting 41.9% from the field but is just 3 of 23 on 3′s.
“I’m not worried about his shooting at all,” Nagy said. “He led us in scoring in Italy (on the team’s summer trip). It’s a little freer over there, and guys got to play the same amount of minutes.
“It’s just the growing pains of being a freshman and playing behind guys who are established. You can look at Trey’s freshman year and see what he did.”
Trey Calvin, who has started the last four years, played behind Cole Gentry as a freshman and shot 31.3% from the field and 25.4% from 3 while averaging 4.8 points.
“With the minutes he’s playing, he needs to maximize those in terms of pouring all his energy into the defensive end, picking up full court, being a pest,” Nagy said of Brown.
“It’s not a role he’s ever played, but that’s what we need him to do.”
Brown had a breakthrough game against Muskingum on Friday. He scored 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting (making two 3′s) with four assists.
He started against Indiana in the third game of the year because Calvin had a sore shoulder. And playing before 17,222 fans at Assembly Hall was perhaps the highlight of the season so far.
“It was a crazy experience — growing up and just watching those type of games on TV and actually playing in that arena. It was a great feeling,” said Brown, who had two points, two assists and four rebounds in the 89-80 loss.
“I felt like I did all right that game. I kind of had the jitters a little bit, but that comes with the game of basketball.”
Brown — his mother started calling him KK as toddler, and the nickname stuck — has been through a crash course in premier point guard play just by having gone against Calvin since summer workouts began.
The fifth-year player leads the Horizon League in scoring with a 20.5 average. He’s fifth in field-goal shooting at 49.1% and is first in foul shooting, making 36 of 38 for 94.7%.
“It’s a battle in practice every day for sure. Trey is a great player, and I take it as an opportunity for myself to get better, playing against somebody of that caliber — (Horizon League) preseason player the year, somebody who averaged 20 points a game last year,” he said.
“It helps me a lot to be able to go against him and prepare for the years to come.”
FRIDAY’S GAME
Wright State at Green Bay, 1 p.m., ESPN+, 101.5, 1410
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