Browne brings intensity to both ends of the floor, set for best season yet

Since her auspicious debut in the fall of 2006, hopes have been high for guard Danielle Browne. Now a senior, Browne has racked up assists and steals throughout her career, and is poised for her most successful season yet.

“In my mind, she’s really epitomized the development of this program since she came in,” Nixon said. “She’s been leaving it on the floor since her freshman year.”

In her first season, Browne was twice named the Ivy League Rookie of the Week and made the Ivy League all-rookie team, and as a sophomore, she was named second team all-Ivy. In the past two seasons, Browne has led the Light Blue in assists and steals. Last season, when the Lions saw the best outcome of the last 22 years with a 13-15 overall record, she was awarded honorable mention all-Ivy.

Nixon said that Browne is at her best in terms of physical condition. Her good health coupled with her work ethic, may foreshadow an especially promising season.

Part of Browne’s resoluteness stems from her upbringing.

“My mother didn’t allow us to do things just to do them,” Browne said. “She wanted us to be good at doing the things we did.” Her older brother also played basketball for Dominican College.
“I grew up on a block with all boys, so it was pretty much sports or nothing else to do,” she said.

She grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y., and began playing basketball at age six. In sixth grade, she began playing organized basketball with the Amateur Athletic Union in the Bronx, and then, she said, “I just ended up here.”

She attended Mount Vernon High School, which is known for producing both male and female Division I basketball players.
Coming from a block with all boys to Barnard might sound like quite a shift in circumstances. However, Browne doesn’t see it this way.

“There are boys,” she said, “I’m not really getting the all-girl experience I thought I was going to get. I’m not complaining.”

Browne chose Barnard College because it not only gave her the opportunity to play basketball, but because it offers the best possible education of the many Division I schools she considered. With her sights set on becoming a sports agent, Browne will graduate with a degree in economics. But for now, the focus is on her last competitive-play season.

Anyone who has seen Browne on the court has observed the extensive bracing and taping that she employs to stave off injury.

“She’s got something on every joint that they make a brace for or tape, and it’s because she just plays so hard,” Nixon said. In addition, she undergoes therapy and rehabilitation for past injuries.

Like many athletes, Browne likes the competition as well as the “family aspect” of being on a sports team.

“You rely on each other,” Browne said of her teammates. “You’re there to help each other out.” This year, she is living with fellow player Judie Lomax.
Despite the pressures of playing Division I basketball, Browne seems relaxed off the court, but noticeably excited about the upcoming season. And she has every reason to be. Even for the sometimes apathetic, Browne’s devotion to the team and the final season of her college career will be worth watching.