Randi Brown – running the plays for HyPo

If you have been following Naisten Korisliiga this season, you can not have missed the impressive guard at HyPo – Randi Brown is in the Top 3 scoring, and in the Top 20 in pretty much all the stats at the early season point. As the league is heading for a two week International break.

Hailing from Houma, New Orleans – which at least on the official VisitUSA website – sounds like an idyllic place to visit. Then again – most places do, if you read tourist information leaflets. Coming from rather warmer climes, Brown is already noticing the cold in Finland as one big shock for her system, although – when the temperatures drop another 30 degrees celsius.. she might think that November actually was quite mild.

Brown is straight out of college player, and ended her record-breaking University of New Orleans career in the spring. Her performances in college did get the attention of scouts – and she attended the ProHoops Combine – where scouts from overseas and WNBA come to check out the talent.

While talking to her, she mentions her goals to be one to be playing in the WNBA – and you can find plenty of articles and video highlights with the title ‘Future WNBA player Randi Brown’. So the fans in the Finnish league should get their chances now to watch her play – one day she might be playing in the biggest leagues in the world.

In college Brown ended up second in all time scoring for New Orleans with a career 2130 points – averaging 22 points per game. She was also voted Conference Player of the Year in 2016-17.

Only few years past her 20th – Brown isn’t (from the sounds of it) too much of a cook, yet. When asked about what she likes to eat – she mentions that they get free Subway through the team, and that the local kebab place is pretty decent – but this is why I like to ask this question.. some players cook, others not. I am sure some of her teammates can teach her some cooking if needed – Saara Wahlgren maybe??

At HyPo, as well as bringing the ball up the court, Brown is excelling as a scorer – averaging almost 24 points per game, 7 rebounds and 3 assists (assists seem to be hard to get in big numbers in the Finnish league for some reason). Being the top scorer in her team, it is no mean feat if you look at some of the players around her. But it goes to show that at HyPo they like to share the ball and scoring. And for a rookie, there is plenty she can soak from an experienced player like Taru Tuukkanen.

It was the talk with coach Sopanen and Taru Tuukkanen that convinced Brown to come over to Finland and HyPo for this season – and by the looks of it, the relationship is working nicely at the moment for both parties.

Randi admits that she is a competitive person, and always has been. And when she was younger, her mom was getting her trying all different sports, but until she tried basketball – nothing felt right. Once the basketball was put in her hands, it just seemed to feel right and that road has now lead her to play out her first pro-year as a basketball player. I wonder if she, or her mother were expecting that 17 years on from those days, Randi would be playing in Finland professionally.

Despite it being her first year, the ambition is there to see – when I mention that last season HyPo were the bronze medal team… before I even get to finish the sentence, Brown says ‘Gold… definitely is our goal for this season’. And with the way HyPo is at the moment playing, you can see why she feels so confident in saying that – as she points out, the team is scoring freely at the moment, while at the same time restricting the opposition to way below their average score.

With the atmosphere and game in Hyvinkaa – if you enjoy basketball, and especially women’s basketball – you should make your way down to MartinHalli and see the player #14 in green showcasing her skills in the Finnish league. While you are at it, mark down the name Randi Brown… you might hear that a lot in the future!