Bryce Brown

Camden Ellis – April, 15^th, 2019                         

                     Bryce Brown

Bryce Brown is a very talented athlete who committed to Auburn as a 3-star prospect. He helped Auburn to 2 SEC Championships and its first Final 4 appearance ever. Brown is an incredible  athlete who’s now off to the NBA. Bryce Brown truly changed Auburn University forever.                          
         Bryce Brown is a very talented basketball player who recently finished his Senior season with the Auburn Tigers. Brown is now a well-known athlete but his high school career wasn’t very sugar-coated. Bryce Brown played guard and began his HS career at Columbia High School in Decatur, GA. There, he averaged 18 PPG and 5 APG as a junior. During his junior season, his father, Cedric, suffered a heart attack while he and Bryce were casually playing a video game together. It required emergency surgery. At the time, Columbia was competing in the Georgia AAAA state playoffs, and Brown was limited by a back injury, resulting in a loss in the championship game. As a senior, Brown transferred to Tucker High School. Coming out of his high school career, Brown was ranked a 3-star prospect by 247 sports. He committed to Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers, a program which was struggling at the time. Brown wanted to prove he could be great. He wanted to make Auburn a basketball school. And that’s just what he would go on to do.

Bryce Brown started off pretty good for a 3-star freshman. In 2015 he averaged 10.1 PPG as a freshman at Auburn. The next season he dropped a little in scoring as he only averaged 7.5 PPG. But in the 2017-18 season, Auburn got good. Really, really, good. Auburn cracked the top 25 in NCAAM rankings from week 10 of the 2017-18 basketball season. And it just got better from there. At the end of the season for Auburn, they were crowned co-SEC regular season champions. When the SEC tournament began, Auburn was set to play Alabama. Alabama smoothly strided to an 81-63 victory over Auburn. The No.1 seed in the SEC Tournament had been beat by 18 against the No. 9 seeded Crimson Tide. Kentucky would go on to win the SEC Tournament. On selection Sunday, the day in which the bracket for the NCAA Tournament is released, Auburn was announced to be a No. 4 seed and would play Charleston. Bryce Brown helped Auburn to a No. 4 seed because of all of his three pointers made. March, 16^th, 2018. Auburn warms up for the game vs Charleston. Even though the Tigers are a much higher seed than Charleston, they must respect their opponent and play their best basketball. Auburn’s style of play is crazy fast. If Auburn gets a rebound, they usually drive down the court as fast as possible and either shoot a layup, or fire a three. If they make it, and they usually do, they might full court press. Or back off and play strong defense. They will cause a turnover and the momentum is all Auburn at that point. Then they’ll shoot another three and burry it. Bryce Brown and the Tigers start off slow in the game vs Charleston. But of course, they always do start off slow in the 1^st round of the tournament. They Tigers would go on to win 62-58. Only a 4-point win for the Tigers. The next game, they faced Clemson. And everything goes wrong in that game. Auburn loses 84-53 in a huge blow out. Auburn’s 2017-18 season was over just like that. Soon enough, 3 Auburn players announced their decision to transfer. Back-up PG Davion Mitchell, PF Desean Murray, and SF Mustapha Heron. All three were key Auburn players. Bryce Brown declared for the NBA Draft. The news was unfortunate for Auburn fans but true. But Brown didn’t hire an agent making him eligible to return to Auburn if he wished. He was simply looking at what NBA scouts thought of him. Brown didn’t like what he saw so he decided to return to Auburn for his 4^th and final year. He wanted one last chance to really get Auburn off the ground. He wouldn’t just get Auburn Basketball off the ground, he’d make history.

The 2018-19 season began for Auburn. They started off ranked 11^th in the country in preseason rankings. That stayed about the same for a while. Auburn lost to Duke in the Maui Tournament 78-72. Nearly an upset of the No. 1 team in the country. Another notable game for Auburn was vs UAB. The Tigers traveled to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to play the Blazers. Surprisingly, UAB gave Auburn a run for its money as Auburn defeated them 75-71 in OT. Bryce Brown was 0-6 from behind the arc. That’s terrible numbers for any player led alone Bryce Brown who’s a 3-point specialist. A week later, Auburn faced the Murray State Racers, a small school with a big attitude. The Racers boasted a player named Ja Morant. He was considered the 2^nd best player in the NCAA next to Duke’s Zion Williamson. The Racers forced a close game only losing 88-93. Expectations were high for Bryce Brown and Auburn when they entered SEC play but surprisingly, Auburn only went 15-9 in SEC games. Eventually Auburn dropped out of the top 25. But the 2018-19 SEC games included some incredible games for Auburn featured by, A 17 point come-back loss to Kentucky at home, a sweep of Alabama, and beating Tennessee 84-80 in the final game of the year. Then came the SEC Tournament. Bryce Brown heated up during the Tournament as the Tigers beat Missouri 81-71, then South Carolina 73-64, Florida 65-62, and finally, Tennessee in the SEC Championship 84-64. Bryce Brown was named the SEC Tournament MVP as he scored a total of 66 points during the SEC Tournament. Bryce Brown had helped Auburn to an SEC Title. On selection Sunday, Auburn was announced to be a No. 5 seed and to play New Mexico State. As always, Auburn started off slow in that game. They were only up by 3 at halftime. The game eventually went down to the wire. Auburn was up 78-77 with one second left. It was New Mexico State’s ball. They were throwing it in at their own side of the court. They threw it in to the corner to Trevelin Queen who jacked up a fade away three for the win. The ball was short to the right of the rim. It was an airball. Auburn had hung on. The next game, Auburn faced Kansas. Bryce Brown couldn’t stop making threes in that games as he helped Auburn to a blowout 89-75 win. Bryce Brown had an astonishing 25 points. The next game Auburn appeared to be the underdogs vs No.1 seeded North Carolina. But sure enough, Auburn destroyed North Carolina 97-80. But the Tigers weren’t focused on the win after the game was over. They rushed to the locker room to see their fallen teammate Chuma Okeke, who’d torn his acl in the 2^nd half of the game. Auburn wouldn’t have won the game without Okeke as he had 20 points and 11 rebounds. The next game was vs Kentucky. Auburn had been swept in the regular season by Kentucky but that clearly didn’t stop Auburn. Their slogan became ‘Do it for Chuma.’ Sure enough, that’s exactly what they did. Auburn defeated Kentucky 77-71 in OT. Bryce Brown scored 24 points in that game. Auburn celebrated as they’d made it to the Final 4 for the first time in school history. Bryce Brown had helped Auburn make history. The Tigers from Auburn, AL, traveled to Minneapolis, MN to take on Virginia. Auburn and Virginia battled and battled. Auburn was up by three at halftime. The second half was very close but eventually Virginia got up by 10 with 5:24 left. But Bryce Brown wouldn’t give up without a fight. A minute later Bryce Brown made a three. Then another minute later, Brown nailed another three. Then Auburn forward Danjel Purifoy made a two-point jumper. Auburn was only down by one and then Bryce Brown made another three. Auburn was up by two. Virginia was forced to foul eventually. But then Virginia made a three and were only down by one. Auburn threw it in and PG Jared Harper was fouled. Harper went 1-2 on free throws. Auburn was up 62-63. Bryce Brown tightly guarded Virginia guard Ty Jerome. Suddenly, Jerome lost the ball but then picked it back up again. It should’ve been a double-dribble but there was no call by the officials. Brown fouled Jerome. Virginia in-bounded the ball to Jerome. Jerome passed to Kyle Guy in the corner on a three for the win. He missed it but was fouled. Virginia would get 3 free throws with 0.6 seconds left. Guy made all 3 which put Virginia up 63-62. Auburn threw it in to Bryce Brown with barely enough time to get the shot off but it was an airball. Auburn’s season was done. But Bryce Brown changed Auburn Basketball forever.

Now, Bryce Brown is off to the NBA. He’s made his presents known to NBA teams. Brown will probably be drafted in the 2^nd round of the NBA Draft. DraftSite.com predicts Brown to be drafted in the 2^nd round with the 42^nd pick to the Atlanta Hawks. Brown could possibly sneak into the first round. We’ll have to wait and see where Bryce Brown gets drafted but none the less, he’s a great athlete.

Bryce Brown is one of the best athletes in Auburn history. He accomplished several things in his time at Auburn. He won several awards and helped Auburn to its first Final 4 in school history. Bryce Brown is an incredible athlete who changed Auburn Basketball.