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Maliq Brown is quiet, but ready to play through injury for Duke basketball vs Alabama
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- Maliq Brown is quiet, but ready to play through injury for Duke basketball vs Alabama
NEWARK, N.J. — Maliq Brown is a defensive dynamo as Duke basketball 's disruptor and king of deflections.
But if you want to hear Brown discuss his defense, you're going to have as hard a time as the players he's guarded throughout the season for the top-seeded Blue Devils (34-3), who play No. 2 seed Alabama (28-8) on Saturday (8:49 p.m., TBS/truTV) for a spot in the Final Four.
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So, where does that quiet demeanor come from?
"Definitely something that's just always been with me," Brown told the USA TODAY Network on Friday inside of Duke 's locker room at Prudential Center.
"Something that I've always had, just letting my work talk for itself, not trying to be too cocky or anything. Just letting my game show my tone and stuff."
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Home, away or at a neutral site, it's been rare to find Brown in the locker room after Duke games this season. It's simply not his style to talk about himself or stand in front of a crowd of video cameras for long periods of time.
Even after some of his most influential games as a defensive menace for Duke, Brown wasn't keen on chatting about his performance.
But Blue Devil starters Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, Sion James and Khaman Maluach don't mind heaping praise on their teammate. They're in agreement that Brown is a "pretty quiet dude," but they see how loud his game is when he's playing defense.
Sure, Brown is reserved, but he made it clear that he's staying ready as Duke tries to get to San Antonio.
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"Obviously, I'm more of a quiet person. Just being myself, not trying to get too high or too low," Brown said.
"Just like in the game, I'm not going in to make crazy plays or anything, just playing my game like I have the whole year. If I'm making a deflection, if I'm getting a rebound, just trying to do anything that my team wants me to do."
He played just four minutes in Duke's 100-93 win against Arizona , returning after missing four games because of a re-dislocated left shoulder. But he had several deflections in those minutes, snagged a steal and dished out an assist before heading back to the bench.
"He has the best hands I've ever seen from anybody," Flagg said. "The way he's able to get deflections, get steals, poke the ball loose, it's incredible. I've never seen anything like it."
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Even with missing 12 games, including eight because of his left shoulder, Brown has remained influential in maximizing the Blue Devils' top-five defense.
"Maliq's just always engaged in the game. He's a very smart player. He sees the game very differently," James said.
"He'd be the first to come to my ear and tell me, 'Hey, Sion, this is what I'm seeing. This is what you might be able to do. This is what they're doing.' He's one of the smartest players on our team. There's a reason that he is who he is defensively. That bleeds over, whether he's playing or not."
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He has a brace on his left shoulder, but Maliq Brown says he's "ready to go" against the Crimson Tide.
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"I'm feeling back to normal," Brown said.
That's not to say he's 100%, but he's in the mindset of "playing freely," trying not to think about his shoulder when he's on the court.
"Just waiting for the MRI results and the X-rays, not knowing if I was going to be able to return back until the end of the season, it's just incredible that I came back this quick already," Brown said.
". … Just know I'm not gonna quit. My teammates keep pushing me, too, so I'm not going to quit on them."
Ideally, Duke coach Jon Scheyer said, Brown "wouldn't have played" against the Wildcats. Foul trouble for Maluach and Patrick Ngongba forced Scheyer's hand. Brown delivered crucial minutes. He may have to do the same against Alabama.
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"I think it speaks a lot about who Maliq is and what he's all about. Look, he's not 100 percent. He's not close to it. … We're going to have him ready to go in the next game," Scheyer said.
"He's been a key guy for us all year-round. What he does for us, he doesn't necessarily shoot a lot, so it's about his health and physical readiness, and he just wanted to give it a shot for us, and I think that says a lot."
Scheyer and the Blue Devils want to protect Brown from further injury, but Brown hasn't been shy about letting his coaches and teammates know about his willingness to get back on the court and help in any way possible.
"That's been a balancing act for me, to be honest. It's been something we've struggled with," Scheyer said. "But the fact that his mindset is to do whatever to help us win, I think is an incredible thing as a coach to have a guy that thinks that way."
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Rodd Baxley covers Duke, North Carolina and N.C. State for The Fayetteville Observer as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his ACC coverage on X/Twitter or Bluesky: @RoddBaxley. Got questions regarding those teams? Send them to rbaxley@fayobserver.com .
This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Maliq Brown battling through injury for Duke vs Alabama in Elite Eight
