Brandon Huffman is a smart young man. He knows where he is as a basketball player and isn’t shy about discussing his cans and can’ts on the court.
Maybe that’s why he's such a valuable reserve on North Carolina’s team. Huffman isn’t the kind of player who steps onto the court and stuffs the stat sheet, that’s just not him. Nor is he going to serve as a focal point of the Tar Heels’ offense, again, that’s just not him.
But Huffman can positively affect a game for the Heels, he showed at times last season. And that’s something he’s happy to discuss, because he completely understands his role on the Tar Heels. That was the most important individual development for him during his sophomore campaign.
“I think I progressed in a few ways,” he said, before zeroing in on the big one. “I learned how to play the role that was given to me no matter what it is. That stretch in January was pretty big for me. It let me know that no matter whatever I’m doing to (push) it as long as I can be effective in some way and to just keep doing little things like that to help.”
The period in January he noted centered around perhaps the most important personal four minutes of his career to date.
It occurred in the first half of UNC’s 21-point loss at home to Louisville, but it gave the Heels their only juice injection of the day. Huffman scored four points in four minutes, aggressively going at the Cardinals.
In a sense, he was the only Tar Heel to strike at Louisville that day. He didn’t back down.
His effort gave UNC Coach Roy Williams an example to point to for the rest of the team. Thus, it’s no coincidence that defeat and how the Heels played served as a launching point to the rest of the season that ended with the Heels winning 17 of their final 20 games, tying eventual national champion Virginia for the regular season ACC title, and earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Huffman wants to build on that stretch of games which means extending his game a bit more, as he did following his freshman campaign.
“It really just depends on where I get the ball what I can do,” he responded, when asked how far he can extend his game. “I really don’t think my game goes far from the basket with everything that I’m asked to do and that is my job, but it’s probably six feet and in.
“Maybe seven-to-10 feet is probably the extent of what I feel like I can do.”
The 6-foot-10, 250-pound Raleigh native played 67 minutes in 27 games this past season averaging 1.1 points and .9 rebounds. He converted 13 of 22 field goal attempts and only turned over the ball once all season.
He wants to win and understands he may not be the guy that goes off for 20 points on a given night, but he’s striving to get his game as close to that or whatever his ceiling is as possible. Collectively, he sees it as winning a championship, and that’s the primary focus.
“(I’m) just going as hard as I can go making sure I give everything I have,” Huffman said, regarding his offseason goals. “Want to make sure I don’t miss anything and make sure that I’m doing all I can. I don’t see things staying the same way for myself so being prepared for when my opportunity comes.”
It will come. It did this past season and no doubt will.
