Playing Time for Brooks Has Been Harder to Come by at UW than USC

The 6-foot-9 forward switched schools to increase his minutes, but the opposite happened.

Staring into a computer screen before the season began, J'Raan Brooks told everyone on the other end how happy he was to be playing again.

The 6-foot-9 junior forward left USC over a lack of minutes, sat out a season as a transfer at his hometown University of Washington and was ready to take the floor again in his first college basketball game in 20 months.

Brooks felt revitalized, motivated, eager to play with a new group. The possibilities were intriguing and endless to him.

"We're almost like a mismatch for a lot of teams," he said in a virtual interview in November. "We're so fast, we're going to push the ball a lot."

What's happened to him since is no different than nearly everything else during the pandemic — Brooks has been put on hold again.

After playing sparingly in 28 games for the Trojans, he's been called on just 14 times by UW coach Mike Hopkins.

"I'll play whatever role Coach Hopkins wants me to do," Brooks said early on.

Still, he probably wasn't expecting to be so inactive once more, let alone suffer along with everyone else through a disastrous 5-20 season.

With the Huskies off for 11 days from its regular-season finale to resuming play in the Pac-12 tournament, we're sizing up the play for each of the 11 players who has received minutes with a game on the line this season. Ten scholarship recipients and 7-foot-4 walk-on Riley Sorn. This is the fifth installment.

J'Raan Brooks played in 28 games for USC, just half that for the UW / USA TODAY Sports

Among the Husky bigs of Nate Roberts, Hameir Wright and Riley Sorn, Brooks might be the most proficient scorer.

He's hit 17 of 30 shots (56.7 percent) that he let fly, including 2 of 4 3-pointers, and averages 3.1 points per game. He's twice scored a season-high 8 points, saving one of these modest outbursts for USC. He college best is 11 against UCLA for the Trojans.

Yet Brooks plays only in spurts. Hopkins even started him at Oregon State but let him log just eight minutes. 

It appears his inability to fully grasp the coach's trademark zone defense is his major stumbling block to more playing time. He gets yanked for continually being out of position.

Hopkins shares with reporters how he likes Brooks' energy, his enthusiasm, his interest level. Still, he barely uses him.

The former Garfield High School standout played a lot of minutes for Brandon Roy, the former Husky All-American and NBA All-Star, helping the well-known coach win one of his state championships.

However, after having a pair of college teams deem him no better than a deep sub, it's really up to Brooks to convince people otherwise. 

J'Raan Brooks has hit 2 of 4 3-pointers for the UW / USA TODAY Sports

He might have to change his body shape some, maybe put on a lot more bulk. Become totally committed to the zone defense. Show Hopkins that he truly can score in bunches, or a lot more than the other bigs on the roster.

Brooks admitted that motivation was once a problem for him. Something has to change. He can't transfer again. 

Two coaching staffs reaching the same conclusion is fairly telling. He has to be all in on advancing his career or nothing is going to happen.

 

Follow Dan Raley of Husky Maven on Twitter: @DanRaley1 and @HuskyMaven

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