The Michigan Wolverines basketball team is having fun while on its 11-0 start to the season. Winning 11-straight games has been especially enjoyable for senior guard Chaundee Brown, who's been waiting for times like these ever since he began his college basketball career back in 2017.
In 2016-17, the season before Brown joined the Wake Forest program in Winston-Salem, the Demon Deacons made an NCAA Tournament appearance for the first time since 2010, which could've been seen as a sign of more success to come. That was not the case, however. At all.
During Brown's three seasons with the program, Wake Forest never had a winning season and amassed a 35-48 record. The losses piled up, and the frustrations surely mounted. Brown chose to transfer this past offseason, looking for greener pasturers, and he found just that in choosing Juwan Howard and the Wolverines.
"It feels great. I mean, it feels great," Brown said, with a big smile on his face. "I definitely feel like it was the best move for myself.
"It’s awesome being the team that’s No. 1 in the Big Ten, everyone is going to give you their best shot and things like that. We’re not the underdog anymore like none of these teams. And I like that competition and teams coming in and giving the best shot at us because I feel like myself and the rest of the team, we respond well with that."
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After being a three-year starter in the ACC, Brown has been asked to come off the bench in Ann Arbor, and he's only averaging 19 minutes per game. However, he's embraced his role, and he's making a huge impact on both ends of the floor. In addition to being one of the squad's best defenders and most energetic players, Brown is posting nine points and 3.2 rebounds per game, while shooting 48.1 percent from the field and 39 percent from long range.
While Brown was suffering losses with his former teammates at Wake Forest, little did he know he was just adding motivation and fuel for himself at his next stop. His hatred of losing is keeping him focused on wanting to win as many games as possible, and cherish the moments while doing so.
"Losing is not a good feeling to anyone, because you work so hard night in, night out and how many workouts you do per day, how many shots you put up and how many hours you spend running through plays, working on defense," Brown explained. "For all that to go down the drain and to be losing continuously, that’s not a good feeling. I definitely feel like every day in practice, we bring it, no matter what we’re doing."
Another key piece on the team has gone through similar circumstances. Fifth-year senior point guard Mike Smith, a Columbia transfer, also went through only losing seasons before arriving to Michigan. His team only won 36 total games in four seasons before he came to Ann Arbor as a graduate transfer. Now, he's the starting point guard on a top-10 team, and is averaging 9.2 points and 5.4 assists per game, while shooting 46.2 percent from three-point range.
Brown said that after each and every game, all wins to this point, he and Smith share with each other just how happy they are to be playing winning basketball.
"I tell him after every game, I say, ‘We’re winning now,'" Brown said. "I feel like both of us work extremely hard, coming before practice and after practice, working on our game. And even in practice, we’re really hard competitors.
"We were in the same boat, and actually winning now, it just feels great. I can’t ask for nothing better. Helping contribute to the team is even better."
Two leaders on the team now, Brown and Smith are happy to be winning, yes, but they're not satisfied with just a hot start, and neither is the rest of the group.
Michigan has been relentless while blowing out opponent after opponent, never taking the foot off the gas. Brown streaking from the other side of the floor to grab a loose ball that appeared it was headed out of bounds, picking it up and dunking it on a fast break against Minnesota is just one example. His put-back dunk after a senior forward Isaiah Livers miss in the second half against Wisconsin is another.
The Wolverines don't just want to win, they want to run opponents off the floor. Break their will. Suck the life out of them.
"We try to not let the team get any confidence at all," Brown said. "We want them to have the mindset that they can’t be on the same court as us. Even the other guys, the rotation guys that come in, we tell them the same thing, ‘Just don’t let up, don’t let up, don’t let them feel like they belong here.’ That’s what we’re trying to do to every team."
The next one up is Minnesota on Saturday. Michigan already took down the Gophers, 82-57, at Crisler last week, but will travel to Minneapolis in what should be a more competitive game.
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