Michigan Basketball: Chaundee Brown has become an architect for success

Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports
Joseph Maiorana-USA TODAY Sports /
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Whether Chaundee Brown is pestering the opposition’s defense or firing up the team from the bench, he is architecting a change for the Michigan basketball program.

The current Michigan Basketball team isn’t built around superstars, but somehow, somebody is always stepping up. Some nights it’s Isaiah Livers, and other times, you might see Hunter Dickinson or Franz Wagner take the helm. However, where a star is missing, you will find a teamwork and comradery culture unlike any other.

The leader of the uncommon success is none other than Chaundee Brown himself. On occasion, Brown will have high point nights as he did against UCF and Bowling Green earlier this year, but his role stretches further and more prevalent than that.

In a year where he has played the fewest he has ever played, he is still taking the highest advantage of his time on the court (20.4 minutes per game). His efficiency has gone up, giving him his best shooting percentage of his career, and he has become an anchor in defense from picking up the game at the other end of the court and always being ready to dislodge a screen.

Michigan Basketball: Chaundee Brown has become an architect for success

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Brown’s selfless play has set up defensively the likes of Wagner and Eli Brooks, taking the pressure off the baseline and forcing the opposition to play further out than they’d like. His off-the-court presence has lifted others as well. He can always be found mobbing it out with his fellow teammates as well as leading the charge from courtside.

It may sound cliché to say it, but a team focused around a single superstar is destined to fail. When a team has someone focused and prepared to play his role, it focuses the rest of the team on their roles as the end goal becomes not to flourish but to succeed with each other.

That type of mentality is precisely what Chaundee Brown brought to the Michigan Basketball program when he transferred from Wake Forest. It would be a different story if the praise were only coming from the coaches, but on a night where Brown scored just one point in the comeback win against Wisconsin, his teammates’ reaction spelled it all out when he was given the game ball.

As soon as he hits the court, the game changes. You can’t call Chaundee Brown a silent leader because his leadership is loudly shown. What you can call him is an architect for change and someone that has proven to the rest of the program that playing your role can lead to bigger success than that of a superstar caliber player.