J'Kyra Brown living out a dream of playing in ACC

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings
Virginia guard J’Kyra Brown makes a no-look pass against N.C. State on Wednesday during the game at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings / Sports Writer
Virginia guard J’Kyra Brown cheers on her team during their game against N.C. State on Wednesday at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings / Sports Writer
Virginia guard J’Kyra Brown shoots a jump shot against N.C. State on Wednesday during the game at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings / Sports Writer
Virginia guard J’Kyra Brown, center, discusses a play with her coaches on Wednesday during their game against N.C. State at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C.

Telegram photo / Adam Jennings / Sports Writer
Virginia guard J’Kyra Brown wipes sweat from her face during a timeout in their game against N.C. State on Wednesday at Broughton High School in Raleigh, N.C.

RALEIGH – The word potential is used a lot when discussing the trajectory of J’Kyra Brown’s basketball career.

From an early age she had the potential for greatness, and she lived up to those expectations at Rocky Mount High, where she left the school as its all-time leading scorer. While playing for the Gryphons many thought she had the potential to play ACC basketball and fulfill a childhood dream.

It took three years and a pit stop in Greenville for Brown to earn the chance to realize her potential in the ACC.

Brown, now a redshirt sophomore at Virginia, started her college career at East Carolina, but quickly realized she was unhappy and elected to transfer. Virginia coach Joanne Boyle heard about Brown’s potential from Brown’s former trainer, Shawn Farmer, and brought her in for a workout. A few days later Brown committed to the Cavaliers.

So what exactly did Boyle see in Brown that day? Potential, of course.

“There were definitely things I saw in her game that allowed me to believe that with a year off and under a system … that she had a lot of skill set that could potentially help us,” Boyle said while sitting in the lobby of the team hotel Wednesday before the Cavaliers played N.C. State at Broughton High School in Raleigh. “She was an athletic guard that had the potential to be a really good rebounding guard, and she showed that last year in the workout.”

Brown’s transition to the ACC has not been easy. She has been plagued by bouts of inconsistent play and had gone into a shooting slump. In her first seven ACC games, Brown made only two shots and was scoring at nearly half the pace she had been as the Cavaliers’ first player off the bench.

Much of that came from the rust of sitting out a year per NCAA rules. Going from playing on the scout team to the squad actually working against the scout team has been an adjustment Brown is still trying to navigate.

“It’s totally different actually playing and sitting out and actually working on your game,” Brown said sitting at the exact same table her coach occupied moments earlier. “Learning the plays and getting acclimated to the system was one of the bigger challenges. The pace of the ACC is real huge, so that was a big challenge as well … everyone is big, everyone is quick.”

One of the perks of playing in the ACC is that Brown still has a chance to play in front of her family and friends. A bus full of friends and family from her church made the trek to Winston-Salem in early January to watch Virginia defeat Wake Forest. Many of those same people made the trip to Raleigh on Wednesday to watch the Wolfpack beat the Cavaliers, taking over an entire section of the bleachers behind Virginia’s bench. And almost all of them will return Thursday.

Amidst that pack was Brown’s mother, Jackie, clad in an orange Virginia shirt with the No.10 and the name Brown printed on the back. She makes regular trips to watch her daughter play, leaving Rocky Mount around 9 a.m. many Sundays to make the three-hour drive to Charlottesville for afternoon home games instead of watching the game on her computer.

The maternal pride glistens off her face as she talks about J’Kyra and her transition to Virginia, saying at one point the adjustment was much easier for her daughter than she anticipated. In some respect, the very fact she was sitting at Broughton High School watching J’Kyra play ACC basketball was something she never imagined.

“It’s an awesome feeling,” Jackie Brown said during halftime. “It’s very surreal. She’s always dreamed about playing in the ACC … and now she’s got her chance.”

J’Kyra grew up attending plenty of Duke women’s basketball games and watched Jasmine Thomas lead the Blue Devils to consecutive Elite Eights in 2010 and 2011. She’ll get her chance Thursday to play at Cameron Indoor Stadium and walk the same hallways as her idols growing up.

“It’s still unbelievable to me that I’m playing on the same court that I’ve always wanted to play on or against,” Brown said. “Getting an opportunity to play in the ACC is real huge, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I just want to play with the top athletes in the country.”

Off the court, Brown is your typical college student who loves to sleep and watch Netflix – Criminal Minds is her go-to show. She hasn’t visited either of Charlottesville’s two bowling alleys yet, but said she would like to at some point.

She said she feels at home because of the people around her both on and off the court. She called her teammates great people to hang out with and said they welcomed her with open arms into the team when she arrived last year.

“The people on my team, the people who surround me are good people,” Brown said. “I just feel like I fit right in with them in regards to playing and outside of basketball.”

After a rough go of it in her first seven ACC games, Brown put on a show for her friends and family Wednesday.

She poured in 9 points, connecting on three 3-pointers, including one midway through the fourth quarter that cut Virginia’s deficit to three. She also collected five rebounds Wednesday night, half of what she amassed in those first seven games combined.

When Boyle talks about a pure scorer who can be a great rebounding guard for the Cavliers in the future, Wednesday’s performance is what the coach imagines in her mind. It’s the type of game that confirms what Boyle and everyone else who knows J’Kyra Brown has known all along – she can be special.

The next two years will determine if potential can turn into reality, but Boyle has faith that Brown will blossom into the player she is capable of becoming.

“J’Kyra has a ton of potential,” Boyle said. “I don’t want at the end of four years for that word to still be attached to her. I want that potential to turn into fruition and that she becomes the great guard that we know she can be.”

By Josh walfish

Sports Writer for Rocky Mount Telegram

Saturday, January 30, 2016