CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It wouldn’t be hyperbolic to call Milan Brown the most interesting rookie in the ACC.
Consider this: The native of Baltimore, Maryland scored more than 2,000 points for Mercy High School and had a career so prolific there that she had her jersey retired while also netting a 4.1 GPA in the classroom.
She’s also a published author, having written two books.
And Brown calls fellow Baltimore native Angel Reese a role model, likens her own game to Russell Westbrook’s, and said Monday at ACC Tip-Off that she wants to be the Governor of Maryland by the time she’s 40. The current occupant of the Old Line State’s Governor’s Mansion, Wes Moore, has already tweeted about her.
And out of 33 Division I scholarship offers, Brown chose to embark on her collegiate career at Wake Forest — a team that has gone 16-45 over the past two seasons and has appeared in the NCAA Tournament just once since 1989.
So, why Wake Forest for this gifted athlete and sharp-minded student?
“I chose Wake Forest because they had exactly what I was looking for athletically, but also in the classroom,” Brown told SB Nation. “I considered some Ivy Leagues, which were really high contenders, but I chose Wake because we’re playing in the ACC — the best conference in the world. It definitely meant a lot to me to play on that type of stage, to get that kind of notoriety, and to play against the best competition in the world.”
Brown broke the scoring record at Mercy by knocking down three consecutive free throws in her final collegiate game. The record had stood since 1988 and was previously held by Rosemary Kosiorek, who went on to earn All-American honors in a decorated career at West Virginia.
In high school, Brown scored a lot of points at the charity stripe and plans to do the same at Wake Forest. For the 5-foot-8 guard, converting her first collegiate And-1 is the thing she’s looking forward to the most about this season — driving inside, knocking down a shot while being fouled and then calmly sinking the ensuing free throw.
And Brown doesn’t just look forward to physical play; she embraces it.
“I’m looking for And-1s every time I’m in the paint,” Brown said. “I’m not shying away from contact.”
It’s in this aspect of her game that Brown compares herself to Westbrook — though, some of the fearlessness and grit she plays with may also come from idolizing Reese. Brown was in middle school when Reese was a senior at Saint Frances Academy, and she never missed a game.
Westbrook, the 17-year NBA veteran and former MVP, is fifth among active NBA players in all-time free throw attempts and garnered a reputation in his career for an aggressive style of play. While aiming to emulate him, Brown also wears the number zero on her jersey.
“Just the intensity we play with. He plays full steam ahead,” Brown said. “I play with a ton of passion and I love the game.”
It’s not often that coaches will bring freshmen to media days before they even play their first minute of college basketball. But the fact that fourth-year Wake head coach Megan Gebbia came to Charlotte with Brown in-tow may be an indication of how big of a role she expects the rookie to play this season.
Should Brown have the same impact as another pint-sized guard from Baltimore who made the journey to Winston-Salem — Muggsy Bogues, who played 14 years in the NBA and has his Wake jersey retired — she could be a catalyst for transforming a program that has had a winning record in ACC play just once in 44 seasons.
Along with piling up points and victories, Brown wants to grow the Demon Deacons’ fanbase too.
“I’m looking forward to playing at the Joel,” Brown said. “We’re going to work really hard to get a good home crowd this year.”
As tenacious as Brown is on the court, she may be even a harder worker off it.
She’s written a pair of books: “Stepping Into History: A VR Adventure” and “Women Who Changed The World: A Virtual Adventure.” The former is about Black history, while the latter is on important historical women.
“I wrote it because, in my city, I feel like a lot of kids don’t have representation and aren’t aware of how rich and great the African American legacy has been,” Brown said. “So, I kind of wrote the book to be a medium between those stories and those great events that they did.”
At Wake Forest, she’s majoring in business and minoring in political science with lofty goals in mind.
“I want to be a politician,” Brown said.
Before she pursues politics, Brown wants to turn Wake into a winner. She’ll aim to do that by calming herself on every game day by listening to music by R&B artist Daniel Caesar before turning up the intensity when she steps on the court, where she’ll relentlessly drive toward the basket no matter who is in front of her.
