Houma native wants to finish with a bang

There aren’t many trophies that Houma native Randi Brown hasn’t yet won in her collegiate career at the University of New Orleans.

Except one: the Southland Conference Player of the Year Award.

With one season of eligibility left before going off to professional ball, Brown said she plans to leave everything out on the floor in an attempt to finish her trophy case.

Brown has been nothing short of dominant in her career with the Lady Privateers – a three-time All-Southland performer and a former Southland Conference Freshman of the Year.

But she’s not content, nor satisfied, adding that she’s worked tirelessly throughout the offseason to ensure that her final year at UNO will be her best one yet – something she believes she’s on pace to achieve.

“This offseason is great,” Brown said. “I train at Elevate Next in New Orleans with my trainer Ernest Watson and we’ve been in the gym so much – just working to get me to be the player that I need to be for this coming season. … I feel like there’s always something I can improve on, so every time I’m in the gym, I just try to be productive and improve on anything I can on a given day.”

College life has been pretty kind to Brown.

She was a decorated recruit coming out of Central Catholic of Morgan City – a player who generated offers from several schools around the Southeast.

In her final prep game, Brown led the Lady Eagles to the Class 1A State Championship, earning Most Outstanding Player honors in the process.

With the Lady Privateers, Brown hasn’t missed a beat.

As a true freshman, she shined, averaging 12.7 points per game – numbers which are a bit misleading as to how good she actually was when the games mattered most.

Brown started the season getting sparse minutes, but ended as arguably the top scorer in the entire league, closing the season with six-straight 20-point games to firmly entrench herself in the Southland hierarchy, while also winning Southland Freshman of the Year.

As a sophomore, Brown didn’t miss a beat, playing 27 games with 24 starts, averaging 17.3 points, 3.2 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game for the Lady Privateers.

But Brown wasn’t an efficient scorer as a sophomore, shooting just 32.9 percent from the field and 23.2 percent from behind the 3-point line.

That didn’t sit well with Brown, who said she a great offseason last summer to get ready for her junior year, which proved to be a breakout campaign.

Last year, Brown was far more prolific, averaging 22.7 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game, earning All-Conference honors.

Brown was far better offensively as a junior, shooting 42.3 percent from the field and 37.1 percent from behind the 3-point line – one of the best offensive seasons in the history of Lady Privateers basketball.

She earned First-Team All-Louisiana after the season, narrowly missing Louisiana Player of the Year Honors, while also leading the Lady Privateers to the Southland Conference Tournament.

“I’ve watched just about all of the players in Louisiana this season, especially those in our conference like Northwestern, Southeastern and Nicholls and for Randi to garner first-team is just an awesome accomplishment,” Lady Privateers coach Keeshawn Davenport said. “As she picks up each individual honor, she knows she couldn’t have done it without the team, so I’m very proud of her.”

Now, Brown is hungry for more.

She said she’s working on every phase of her game – especially defense – so that she can be more productive than she’s ever been.

Brown said her goal is to win the Southland Conference Player of the Year and also to earn a place on the All-American team, but she added that she’d trade either of those two goals for the big prize.

“I want to get a conference championship,” she said.

Because of her success throughout her career, Brown is starting to generate interest from scouts at the professional level.

In the latest mock draft issued by www.draftsite.com, Brown is listed as a second-round pick (No. 18 overall) in the 2018 WNBA Draft – the only mid-major player on the draft board.

Brown said to see her name on lists like that is something she’s dreamed of since she was a child, adding that it motivates her to work even harder in the future.

“It feels amazing to know that all of my hard work is actually paying off,” Brown said. “I’m really blessed to be on that list with so many other great players. I know I still have a lot of work to do, but it’s a great start.”

Brown added that she sometimes wonders where all the time has gone, touting that it feels like just yesterday she was signing her scholarship papers and now she’s entering her senior season.

But she said she looks forward to the future and will attack it one game at a time – much like she’s done throughout her career to get to this point.

“It feels like I was a freshman just yesterday,” Brown said. “It’s been an amazing journey that’s helped mold me into the person I am today. I definitely wouldn’t have made it through this journey without God and my family. I enjoyed the journey and the process, but now, I’m ready for what God has next for me.”

Randi BrownCOURTESY

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