Pat Kelsey on Mikel Brown: 'Similar to Chris Paul'
Pat Kelsey was on Skip Prosser’s staff back in 2003 when Chris Paul was a freshman at Wake Forest. Paul came in as one of the top point guards in the country, much like Mikel Brown Jr., does at Louisville this season.
Kelsey has immediately recognized some similarities between the two.
“He’s a dog, a competitor. He wants to be great,” Kelsey told Field of 68 of Brown. “I coached CP and he had that “it” about him. Chris was like Mozart with that natural born feel and IQ, and you see some of those same attributes with Mikel. Special young man, special player.”
“He’s a scoring point guard,” Kelsey added of Brown. “He can make all the passes, all the reads, has an advanced basketball mind, a prodigy for his age. But man, can he put the ball in the basket. He can really shoot it.”
Brown took a leap of faith when he committed to Louisville last January, in Kelsey’s first season at the helm and before the Cardinals got it going at the end of the year.
“The family environment was the biggest thing,” Brown said. “The whole staff.”
Our interview with Mikel Brown:
Brown is a guy that has gone from 5-foot-11 and 145 pounds as a sophomore to 6-foot-4 now, and he’s still getting used to being able to use his newfound height and strength to his ability.
“I’m still trying to figure that out. I’ll get in the paint, I’ve got a 41-inch vertical and I try and pump fake,” Brown told the Field of 68. “My dad tells me to use it. ‘You’re not a 5-10, small guard anymore.’ I’m still trying to adapt to my body. The things I’m able to do now, I wasn’t able to do back then. I was small, not really that athletic. I used pump fakes, used my skill. Now I need to drive more.”
Brown will have the ball in his hands a ton, and knows he’ll have to shoulder a ton of responsibility for a Louisville program that has quickly gone from a laughingstock to one that has Final Four, and even national championship, aspirations in Year 2 of the Kelsey Era.
Brown, 19, is surrounded by veteran guards who have the ability to shoot the ball at a high rate – which should make things easier for him in running the show. Ryan Conwell is a career 39 percent 3-point shooter in three college seasons while Isaac McKneely has shot 42 percent over his three seasons at Virginia.
“To be able to have so many shooters on a team is helpful for me,” Brown said. “It opens the paint more, opens lanes for me to get downhill.
“They’re experienced, they have gone through the fire in college ranks,” he added. “That helps a lot, and what will help me grow as a player.”
Brown is considered a likely lottery pick, maybe even in the conversation for the No. 1 overall pick come June. But every one of his teammates and coaches maintain that he hasn’t come into the program with an ego that he’s the star of the show.
“He’s as humble of a superstar, 5-star, decorated player as you’ll find anywhere,” Kelsey said of Mikel Brown. “He doesn’t carry himself like he’s any better than anyone else.”
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