CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina senior forward Garrison Brooks hasn’t had the season most expected from the ACC Preseason Player of the Year, and even he’ll tell you that.
Going into Tuesday night’s 81-75 win over Syracuse in the Smith Center, Brooks was coming off three consecutive games where he failed to score in double figures and was averaging just 7.5 points in 27.7 minutes per game through UNC’s first four ACC contests. He also came off the bench in the three previous games after losing his starting spot to freshman forward Day’Ron Sharpe.
To put it simply, Brooks just wasn’t looking like the energetic, enthusiastic player Carolina basketball fans have been accustomed to seeing in his three seasons in Chapel Hill. But, after a conversation with two people that know the LaFayette, AL, native better than most, Brooks looked more like Brooks against the Orange.
“My uncle and my AAU coach got on me about not having the right energy and they said, 'If you come out with energy and passion, the ball will find you and you'll get easy buckets,’” Brooks said, referring to his uncle, former UAB star Mo Finley, and Team Carrol Coach Chris Monroe.
It’s safe to say he got the message.
Back in the starting lineup for the first time in three weeks, Brooks finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds, his first double-double of the season, with 14 of those 16 points coming in the first half. The veteran big also had two blocks and three steals, showing just how active he was on both ends of the court.
His performance may have been a surprise to some when considering his struggles over recent weeks, but it wasn’t for him. In fact, he told his coaches before the game that he was going to look like the Garrison Brooks of old against Syracuse and he wasn’t lying.
“I told Sean (Maye) I was gonna play better, I told coach (Steve) Rob (Robinson) I was gonna play better,” Brooks said. “I said, 'I'm gonna play better. It doesn't matter.' So, I drew a line, said I'm gonna play better and help my team."
What exactly changed for Brooks? It’s pretty simple, really.
“Just fix your energy, fix your attitude, fix your mindset to the game,” Brooks said, noting the advice he got from Finley and Monroe. “It doesn't matter if you're scoring, you've got to make a difference in one part of the game. It doesn't matter. You have to affect the game some type of way.”
For fellow big Armando Bacot, Brooks’ struggles, particularly on offense, weren’t necessarily a surprise. Bacot said he felt like Brooks was trying to let his teammates get integrated into the offense instead of taking charge and being the aggressor he usually is.
And, just like Brooks’ uncle and AAU coach had a message for the senior big, so did Bacot.
“What I told him was just go out there and be him and don't worry about us, we'll just figure it out,” Bacot said. “And just be that best player in the ACC that I feel like he is, and we all know that he is.”
While Brooks has struggled to find consistency this season, his attitude hasn’t been a problem. And that’s not an opinion, either, that’s straight from the mouth of his Hall of Fame head coach, who was left frustrated after some comments were made about Brooks having bad body language during the Tar Heels’ win at Miami last week.
“He has the greatest attitude you can possibly have and it's hard for those guys doing the TV stuff in their homes 500 miles away, watching it on TV and trying to make comments,” UNC Coach Roy Williams said. “Garrison does not have bad body language. Garrison does not have a bad attitude. He's damn near perfect."
It may have taken longer than he expected, but Brooks looked more like the ACC Preseason Player of the Year in what was Carolina’s third straight ACC victory Tuesday night. He got the messages that were sent to him and simply played better, and that’s a huge positive for this team as they get closer to the halfway point of the season.
