| No. 6–Duke Blue Devils | |
|---|---|
| Position | Power forward |
| Conference | Atlantic Coast Conference |
| Personal information | |
| Born | November 16, 2003 Culpeper, Virginia, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 9 in (2.06 m) |
| Listed weight | 222 lb (101 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Blue Ridge School (Saint George, Virginia) |
| College | |
| Career highlights | |
| |
Maliq Xavier Brown (born November 16, 2003) is an American college basketball player for the Duke Blue Devils of the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). Brown previously played for Syracuse.
Brown was born in Culpeper, Virginia into an athletic family, and began football at age five and basketball at around age seven. [1] He attended Blue Ridge School, and independent all-boys high school in St. George, Virginia, where he was a four-time VISAA-Division II basketball state champion. Brown was selected as VISAA Division II Player of the Year and first-team All-VISAA his senior year, averaging 15.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.2 assists, 2.4 steals and 1.5 blocks. He also played two years of basketball and track while at Blue Ridge. [2]
Brown was a consistently rated a three-star prospect and top-15 player in the Virginia class of 2022. [3] [4] He received over a dozen offers to play college basketball before committing to Syracuse over the likes of Virginia Tech, NC State, Penn State and Georgetown, and signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Orange on November 12, 2021. [4]
Brown enrolled at Syracuse on June 3, 2022 and participated in summer practices. [4] He then appeared in 29 games and made seven starts, averaging 20.2 minutes per game. [5] Brown contributed a double-double in a home win over Virginia Tech, and scored a career-high 18 points and four steals in a loss at Georgia Tech. [6]
As a sophomore, Brown saw a significant uptick in production, starting 18 of 32 games played. [5] He achieved the double-double mark four times, including in the ACC Tournament against NC State. [7] On February 7, 2024, against Louisville, Brown scored 11 points on 4-for-4 shooting with nine rebounds, five assists, six blocks and five steals. [8] This was the first 5x5 performance while shooting 100% by any player on the NCAA Division I level (men's or women's), NBA or WNBA in the last 25 years. [9] He finished the year with 230 rebounds, 29 blocks, and a conference-high 71 steals [10] [11] and was named to the ACC All-Defensive team, receiving the third-highest number of votes. [2]
Following his sophomore season, Brown announced he would be entering the transfer portal on April 2, 2024. [4] He was rated a top-15 power forward in the portal and around 70th overall. [3] [4] Brown visited Duke on April 18, [12] and committed to the Blue Devils on April 20. [13]
Brown matched his career-high of five steals in a loss against Kansas, the highest output for a Duke player since a five steal performance by Paolo Banchero in 2022. [14] In the loss, Brown was kicked in the head by Kansas big man Hunter Dickinson, causing the Jayhawks center to be ejected from the game. [15] In a win over Notre Dame, Brown suffered a sprain knee, causing him to miss four games. [16] [17] He then suffered a dislocated shoulder in the Blue Devils' win at Virginia, [18] and missed another four games before returning in the final game of the regular season in a win at North Carolina. [19] In the first game of the ACC Tournament, Brown re-aggravated his shoulder injury, missing the remainder of the tournament and the opening rounds of the NCAA Tournament. [20] He saw limited minutes in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, before notching four points, three rebounds and two steals in 15 minutes in a Final Four loss to Houston. [21]
On April 23, 2025, the program announced on Instagram that Brown would return for his senior year. [22]
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