Last fall, when Oregon freshman Liz Brenner arrived on campus, playing collegiate basketball was low on her list of priorities. You could say her hoop dreams were — for a while — left to simmer on the back burner.
It wasn’t that Brenner lacked the competitive fire to take the hardwood. In fact, it was the complete opposite; her killer instinct was keeping her preoccupied. Brenner was busy playing a sizable role on Oregon’s nationally ranked volleyball team, finishing third in kills while serving as a secondary offensive weapon behind All-American Alaina Bergsma. @@https://www.nmnathletics.com//pdf8/790531.pdf?ATCLID=205180435&SPSID=4286&SPID=234&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
In volleyball, the emergence of Brenner — an Under Armour All-American in high school — was unsurprising. However, some eyebrows were raised when, after the season, she announced she would take on a new challenge: playing basketball for Oregon under former NBA-champion head coach Paul Westhead.
Brenner surely didn’t lack the credentials to lace up: she was Oregon’s Class 6A State Player of the Year in basketball twice. However, she was short on one essential ingredient for playing time: preparation. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?SPSID=4285&SPID=234&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500&ATCLID=205157914&Q_SEASON=2012@@
That was because volleyball didn’t end until Oregon’s heartbreaking loss to Colorado State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. By that time — Dec. 1 — the basketball team was already seven games into its season, in the midst of a road trip to Northern California. Brenner, on the other hand, was surrounded by dejected and exhausted teammates in Honolulu.
Just a few weeks later, the wheels were turning on Brenner’s move.
“We just got a text message one night,” says senior forward Amanda Johnson. “It said, ‘Liz from the volleyball team is going to be joining us tomorrow.’ I didn’t know if it was going to be for a practice or for a tryout or for the year.”
After an exhausting fall spent adjusting to college competition at one sport, was Brenner worried about getting in game shape for hoops?
“Definitely,” Brenner says. “(In) volleyball, we don’t really run at all. We run in preseason, but once the season starts pretty much all of our focus is on jumping. In basketball and running (Westhead’s offensive strategy) The System, you run the whole time.”
Despite having four months of intense competition and travel under her belt, Brenner suited up for the basketball team less than three weeks later for a matchup against Cal State Northridge on Dec. 19. She immediately proved she was on the roster to stay, scoring four points and grabbing three rebounds off the bench in her first 13 minutes in the NCAA. @@http://www.goducks.com/downloads2/439084.htm?ATCLID=205349955&SPSID=4307&SPID=236&DB_LANG=C&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
“It didn’t take me long to realize that she was going to be a significant player, not just a fill-in role,” Westhead says.
Since then, Brenner has carved out a substantial niche as Oregon’s best reserve post player. When senior forward Amanda Johnson — the team’s leading scorer and rebounder — was lost to a thumb injury over the next two months, Brenner stepped in for eight starts, earning her court time with tough inside buckets, physical play and a nose for the ball.
Accordingly, she’s seen her playing time rise to 24 minutes per game as Westhead searches for an inside force to help Johnson. The duo is attempting to buoy a team that is last in the Pac-12 in both scoring defense and rebounding margin. Brenner has delivered in both of those facets, putting up 6.1 points and 5.9 rebounds per game while doing honorable work on the other end against some of the Pac-12’s best inside players. @@http://www.goducks.com/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205335991&DB_OEM_ID=500@@
How has Brenner assumed such a large role so quickly? If you ask Westhead, it all starts with her mental stability.
“I’m surprised that I don’t really recognize that she is a freshman,” Westhead says. “She doesn’t act like one, she doesn’t play like one, I don’t treat her like one — but she is one. She seems like she’s been around a long time.
“In the Irish culture they’d call her an ‘old soul.’ She’s been around, she’s been there before.”
Brenner used that been-there mentality to quickly adjust from high school competition to facing the likes of Stanford’s Nnemkadi Ogwumike, one of the most talented forwards in the nation, if not the world. As you can assume, even with a sense of confidence steadying her play, the leap was less than easy. @@http://www.gostanford.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/ogwumike_nnemkadi00.html@@
“It’s been really tough,” Brenner says. “But I love competition, and I love competing against people and it’s kind of fun to have people who can actually challenge you every once in a while. I’d definitely say high school basketball in Oregon wasn’t as challenging, and I’m definitely being pushed now.”
However, one could argue that it’s Brenner who’s doing most of the pushing. Though the freshman is grinding away to catch up to NCAA competition, she’s quickly established herself as an enforcer on both ends of the court.
“(Westhead) definitely encourages me to be tough and aggressive down in the post,” says Brenner. “I think that’s a big reason why they wanted me on the team, just to help out down there because there’s a lot of big girls that we play against, and I have some strength.”
“We haven’t had many players who would gravitate down (to the post),” Westhead says. ”You’d almost have to push them and say, ‘Hey, go down.’”
Is Westhead planning on having Brenner’s services in the paint for the next four years? He hopes so but knows much is out of his hands.
“There’s only one person who can answer that,” Westhead says. “Liz Brenner.”