With the score knotted at 52 and 10.8 seconds left, the Brown men’s basketball team called a time-out to discuss what to run for a final play. Damon Huffman, a junior at the time, got the ball, and despite his 46 percent accuracy from three-point range, drove to the basket. He was unable to get a shot off and the Bears fell in overtime, 60-56.
This year, Huffman, now a senior, faced a similar situation. With his team trailing Army 78-74, he converted a three-point play to pull his team within one. After the Cadets missed the front end of a one and one, a time-out was called with 8.2 seconds remaining. The ball was in bounded to Huffman, who drove right and pulled up to hit a game winning 10-footer with 1.7 seconds remaining.
“I loved winning that game,” head coach Craig Robinson said. “He had come full circle and put the team on his shoulders.
Huffman, who hails from a “very small town in northern Michigan nowhere near any big city—also known as Petoskey—was a three-sport athlete in high school, playing basketball, soccer, and track.
Even then he was a leader, serving as the captain for both the basketball and soccer teams. He said that what soccer taught him most was finding the open guy and understanding the team concept.
He came to Brown because it was the place that wanted him most. He was told he could make an impact. According to Robinson, when he took over the program after Huffman’s junior season, he didn’t really know him. He hadn’t heard much about him and his first reaction in viewing tapes was not overwhelming.
“When I first got here Damon was one of those guys having difficulty with what we were trying to do,” Robinson said. “We asked him to do things he hadn’t done before.”
Huffman certainly had experience. As a freshman, Huffman played 29 minutes per game, averaging 8.4 points a game. However, 106 of his 174 field goal attempts were three-point attempts. As a sophomore, he started every game averaging 10.8 points but struggled from the field, shooting just 39 percent overall and a meager 29 percent from beyond the arc. 60 percent of his shot attempts were three-pointers.
“He was a three-point shooting specialist,” Robinson said. “We were asking him to become an all-around basketball player. He hadn’t been asked to do that before. If you can shoot a 3 people try to make you a specialist.”
Huffman responded. In a 68-56 loss at Columbia when Huffman was a sophomore he led his team with 20 points. Of those 20 points, 18 came off three-pointers. He shot 15 times; 13 were threes.
In a game this season against American, Huffman again led the Bears in scoring—something he has done already seven times. This time, of his 29 points, eight came from free throws, 12 from two-point baskets, and nine from three-point baskets.
“He has a terrific understanding of what we as a staff are trying to look like, to do, to be,” Robinson said.
As a senior, Huffman is putting up the kinds of numbers that would make any coach notice. He is leading the Bears in scoring at 16.2 points a game, second in the Ivy League, shooting 46 percent from the field, 44 percent from the field and 85 percent from the free throw line—the last two good for fourth in the league.
If there is one thing that stands out about Huffman for Robinson, it is his leadership.
“There are some players who lead by example, some who are vocal leaders and some who don’t lead vocally but they are just natural leaders,” Robinson said. “Damon has a combination of all three and that is rare.”
As a freshman, Huffman was one of nine freshmen on a team with one senior. Now, though the Brown roster features seven freshmen, there is a core group of seniors that has been there a long time.
“Having experience in the Ivy League is huge,” Huffman said. “The biggest thing I can do for the freshmen is share any experiences I have gone through.”
Robinson said that Huffman has taken the time to seek out each freshman individually and help them along.
“In my class we hadn’t had upperclassmen leading us,” Huffman said. “The biggest thing is trying to set a good example for them.”
With Ivy play—indisputably the most important part of any season—underway, it is hard to say he is doing anything but that. In Brown’s first Ivy home game against Yale, Huffman scored 23 points, 15 in the second half, to lead the Bears to a 77-68 victory and garner Player of the Week honors.