Daeisha Brown has loved basketball since she was six years old. She continues to play and love the sport as a sophomore guard on the LU women’s basketball team. As she was recently named to the preseason All-Conference team, head coach Bill Reinson said, “She’s a 5-foot-2 stick of dynamite.” And this dynamite is ready to be lit.
Brown grew up in Richmond, Va. in a basketball-oriented family. Brown said, “It’s a family event. My daddy was a very good basketball player.” These basketball genes also went to her older brother. Brown said, “My brother actually played at St. Augustine’s.”
Brown attended Huguenot High School and was a captain of her basketball team. As a member of the Falcons, Brown received many honors including All-District Player of the Year, All-Metro Player of the Year, All- Metro and All-District First Team selection, Second-Team All-State, Richmond Times-Dispatch Player of the Week and All-Academic honoree.
With an impressive resume under her belt, Brown’s only option was to find a school she could play basketball at. Brown said, “It was always my dream to play on a college basketball team.” When asked why Longwood, Brown responded, “When I came here it was really pretty and I loved the atmosphere. I had actually never heard of Longwood but it was close to home and convenient.”
Another important factor for Brown was her relationship with the coach. “The coaches were very cool,” she added. In Brown’s past, she had one coach and one assistant coach that made a strong impact on her game. Referring to her high school coach, Brown said, “Coach [Bo Jones, Jr.] was always pushing me to go harder and be better than I was the night before.” Brown also brought up an assistant coach in her past, “April Robinson always stayed on top of me. She just always wanted me to play to the very best of my ability.”
Those words have stuck with Brown through her college career thus far. Brown said, “Individually I just want to better myself from last year, like last year I was all left handed and this year I want to go both ways, right and left.”
Reinson commented on her drive to do better: “What she’s done this summer is try to diversify her game. She’s improved her jump shot and learned how to go right a little bit; she was really left handed heavy last year.”
Last year, Brown was a big factor in the team’s success. Brown played in 32 games and scored a total of 390 points. She averaged 12.2 points a game. She was 110- 153 on free throws. While she took shots she also assisted 63 times through the 32 games. Brown had a total of 128 rebounds, averaging four a game.
The Lancers went 14-19 in 2012- 13 and finished second in the Big South tournament, losing to Liberty in the championship game, 54-45. This year the team was voted to finish sixth in the preseason, and Reinson said, “I think people understand that we have talent, I think people also understand we’re very young, so I think that’s a very optimistic spot to be in.”
While Brown discussed her personal goals for the season she also talked about the team's goals and said, “As a team our goal is to win the Big South conference championship. I think we have great chemistry and we do everything as a team. If one person falls we all pick her up as a team.”
The season tips off on Friday at 8 p.m. at Seton Hall. Coach Reinson seems very excited about the season when he said, “Our non-conference schedule this season is perfect. We’re a very young team; we don’t go on the road a lot. We have three road games in the nonconference and then we have 6 at home.” This works really well with Longwood’s team for a particular reason, as Reinson said, “Playing in front of the fans in Willet Hall with these young kids on the team is very good for them to grow. They’ll have the support as they make the mistakes as opposed to going on the road and having people get on them a little bit.”
Brown is averaging 10.5 points and 10.5 rebounds in two games thus far, including a team-high 16 points and 11 rebounds on Monday in a 59-52 win over William & Mary in Willett Hall.
