Brown’s Game Silences Critics

Like an angry mob in an old horror movie, the haters and nonbelievers have been figuratively chasing Taliek Brown through the streets of Storrs, Conn., since his arrival on campus in 2000.

The only things missing have been the pitchforks and torches -- at least that’s how it has felt to Connecticut’s senior point guard, a four-year starter who has endured more downs than ups during his star-crossed career.

Until Monday night.

These things happen when you replace a campus legend in Khalid El-Amin, who, along with Richard Hamilton, led UConn to the 1999 national championship.

And feelings are supposed to change when you follow in El-Amin’s paw prints by directing your team to the title, as Brown did with the Huskies’ 82-73 defeat of Georgia Tech at the Alamodome.

“This just makes people eat their words and makes people shut up about me,” said Brown, who had the honor of clipping the last strand of twine from the east end basket after getting nine points, six rebounds and four assists with two turnovers against the Yellow Jackets.

From the point, he propelled the Huskies’ 21-6 run midway through the first half that turned a 12-11 deficit into a 32-18 lead.

“They can’t say nothing about me no more,” Brown said.

They said plenty during his time at UConn.

Brown, who was part of a famed New York City class of high school point guards with Omar Cook (St. John’s) and Andre Barrett (Seton Hall), became a favorite target on fan Internet message boards when he failed to immediately live up to the hype.

A school that was a year removed from winning its first national title also was hungry for more and downcast after El-Amin left early for the NBA in 2000.

Enter an overwhelmed Brown.

“That’s why, they just won a championship and I came in on my own so I didn’t have nobody to look up to or ... learn from,” Brown said.

“It was real bad. Some days I was real depressed. I cried some days. I just knew I couldn’t let people talk to me and let that get to me. That’s for girls. If I would have gave up, I would have been a girl. So I didn’t let that get to me, I just let it motivate me, just kept working hard.”

Hard enough that he earned the respect of his teammates.

“A lot of people had a lot of negative things to say, ‘Connecticut needs a point guard,’ ” said fellow senior guard Shamon Tooles. “But it doesn’t matter what other people say as long as coach [Jim Calhoun] is happy.”

Said Calhoun: “Tonight he was back in character, trying to make other folks better. He was terrific.”

Seemingly, all Brown did in his career was win.

Brown, the Huskies’ all-time leader in assists with 722, also led UConn to a 103-35 record, including two Big East regular season titles and two Big East tournament titles

His 6.5-assists average this year set a school single-season record and his 10-assist, one-turnover game in the Huskies’ 87-61 demolition of Alabama in the Phoenix Regional final was a career highlight.

Still, fans booed him on numerous occasions this season.

His poor play at the point (seven turnovers and two of eight shooting) against Duke in Connecticut’s 79-78 national semifinal win nearly cost the Huskies.

“It felt good to end it that way,” he said. “This ends everything. It feels real great. I broke all the assists records ... scored [1,039 career] points ... won a championship. So what can people say now?”

Maybe just offer congratulations.