Pack's Brown finds handle, earns praise

RALEIGH -- N.C. State sophomore Lorenzo Brown reacted as any player would after learning he was being moved to the point guard position where ballhandling is premium. He went to the gym.

"First thing I did was try to work on my handles," Brown said of this season's move from shooting guard.

"That's what I thought a point guard is suppose to have. But it's a lot more to it. It was the most frustrating thing I've had to go through in my basketball career, having to make that transition."

It may have been frustrating, but Brown has adapted, even flourished. As the Wolfpack prepares to visit Wake Forest on Saturday (1 p.m., WRAL), the 6-foot-5 guard has emerged as one of the ACC's must-see players. With Brown at point guard, the Wolfpack (12-5, 1-1 ACC) is averaging 77.0 points per game - third best in the conference behind Duke and North Carolina.

While directing a Wolfpack offense featuring five players averaging double-figure scoring - including his own 12.5 points per game - Brown has:

Averaged 6.8 assists per contest, which ranks him second in the conference and seventh nationally in assists.

Averaged a 2.3 assist/turnover ratio, third-best among ACC players.

Averaged 1.8 steals per game (second-best in the ACC).

Last week, he earned ACC Player of the Week honors after averaging 19.0 points, 8.0 assists and 5.5 rebounds in leading the Wolfpack to a pair of wins over Campbell (Dec. 29) and Western Carolina (Dec. 31).

Brown was asked to make the difficult transition from off-guard to lead guard following the arrival of first-year coach Mark Gottfried and the transfer of point guard Ryan Harrow to Kentucky.

Where the shooting guard is primarily responsible for scoring, the point guard serves as the administrator of the team, surveying opponents, calling plays and dispensing information. Most point guards grow up playing the position and develop an innate sense for the demands of their job.

"At times, he's been terrific," Gottfried said recently of Brown.

For those who've played college basketball, there's a respect for players who successfully move from the off-guard position to point guard.

"You've got to think 'team first,' " former N.C. State point guard Chris Corchiani said. "You have to be in control. You have to be an extension of the coach. (Brown) really has done a good job in grasping all of those things."

Scoring came first

For much of his life on the basketball court, Brown has been a scorer. Now, he's expected to deliver the ball to others.

"At the beginning, it was frustrating," he said.

Brown had spent some time as a point guard while playing for Centennial High School in Roswell, Ga., and then during a prep season at Hargrave Military Academy. Yet more often, he deferred to someone else or to Harrow, his teammate last season, to make the passes.

Harrow's departure hurt Brown, but he regrouped with the support of Gottfried. From the start, the Wolfpack's new coach instilled confidence in him about playing a new position. He told Brown they would work daily at the process.

Gottfried, who recruited Brown while coaching at Alabama, announced Brown as the "quarterback" of the team this fall and placed his read-based offense into the sophomore's hands.

"Now you're responsible for our possessions," Gottfried explained to him. "You're responsible for how our team plays offensively. Sometimes you get a lot of the blame. You get a lot of credit, too."

In his straight-talking way, Gottfried warned Brown that point guards in his system are regarded highly and are burdened with high expectations.

"If we have a bad possession offensively or somebody else takes a bad shot, I blame the point guard," Gottfried said. "It's your fault. ... Your role is to make sure we get good shots every time down the floor."

Steep learning curve

Gottfried found every opportunity to teach his new point guard, even though his methods were sometimes tough.

He chided Brown about his erratic ball-handling and turnovers in practice.

"I always felt like he was picking on me," Brown said. "I'd be like, 'Man, are you going to back off of me some time?' He'd be like, 'I don't care about you pouting.' "

Brown, who can be introverted, never retreated into a shell. He's a tall guard and tends to stand erect while dribbling, exposing the ball to shorter guards. So he kept working on dribbling low with the ball and bending his knees.

"You're a more dangerous player if you're lower," State assistant coach Bobby Lutz told Brown.

To help Brown learn from mistakes, State coaches review film with him after games. Decisions are discussed, plays broken down.

"It's a process where you keep doing that over and over and over again," Gottfried said.

Brown worries a lot more as a point guard while playing a team-high 32.8 minutes per game.

"There's so much pressure on you," he said. "If you're running the team, running the right plays at the right time. Setting up, slowing the break down. There's so much you have to do."

Embracing the change

Brown often calls the offensive play State runs during a half-court set, basing the call on a read of the defense facing him.

That responsibility complicated Brown's life as he was learning the position.

"I'm still at the bottom of that right now," he said. "It's a lot of reads. I still don't know all of the reads to tell the truth. Coach has so many options to go through."

Slim and swift, Brown's at his best in the open court.

"He's pushing the ball, he's rebounding and he's dishing it out," State junior forward Richard Howell said. "That's exactly what we need."

Brown has approached the transition with a student-of-the-game mentality.

He spends his down time studying YouTube highlights of Derrick Rose and other NBA point guards, or reading "how to play point guard" material assigned by State's assistant coaches.

"He's probably playing as well as any point guard in the ACC right now," said State junior forward Scott Wood.

"I think it's fun," Brown said. "It's a lot of fun to just run fast breaks, throw alley-oops, throw no-look passes. What else can you ask for?"