Making a point: Sophomore guard transitions from shooter to leader

Fresh off a stellar freshman season, IU sophomore point guard Jamie Braun is having a breakout sophomore campaign. \nAfter earning Big Ten Sixth Player of the Year, an honor given to a team’s best player off the bench, and averaging 10.6 points per game off the bench her freshman year, Braun improved in every major statistical category this year and was named to both the media and coach's All-Big Ten teams.\nLost in the numbers and awards, however, is Braun’s transition from a score-first shooting guard to a team-first point guard. \n“Jamie’s playing big-time basketball,” IU coach Felisha Legette-Jack said. “She’s doing some things with her right hand as well as her left hand. She’s feeling out where her teammates want the ball. She’s being a team player, but she’s attacking when she needs to attack.”\nLegette-Jack said it wasn’t easy to convince Braun to make the switch to point guard.\n“We fought this position at the beginning of the season,” she said. “She didn’t want to be a point guard, but we knew that she could be a great point guard and she’s proving us right.”\nNow, after a season running the team, Braun is a point guard first and a shooting guard second. Freshman Whitney Lindsay has seen some play at point guard, allowing Braun to move back to shooting guard. But Braun said it is now the shooting guard position that needs some refreshing.\n“I played two-guard all last year, so it’s coming back to me,” she said. “At first it was a little shaky.”\nWhile Braun is fulfilling the traditional role of a point guard – making her teammates better by setting up the offense and leading the team – she has also demonstrated that she is comfortable shooting the big shots. \nJust ask Ohio State coach Jim Foster. Braun knocked down big shot after big shot in a 69-61 upset against the Buckeyes on Feb. 25, and she had a personal 7-0 scoring run to give IU the lead in the second half.\n“She has a sense of who she is and knows what her strengths are and doesn’t shy away from wanting the ball in her hands when the game is on the line,” Foster said after the game. “She made some big-time plays.”\nPurdue coach Sharon Versyp said she knows how Braun can make an impact. After struggling in the first half, Braun hit two key 3-pointers, including one from several feet beyond the 3-point line, on the way to a 66-54 road victory against the Boilermakers Jan. 14. \n“As soon as you relax on her, she’s going to find a three and hit a three six-to-seven feet behind the line,” Versyp said after the game. “That’s what happens when you have a go-to player that wants the ball in their hand to make plays and knows they can do it.”\nLike Foster and Versyp, Northwestern coach Beth Combs has had to deal with Braun’s explosiveness. Braun made Northwestern players look silly on her way to 16 points in a 74-58 win against the Wildcats on Feb. 7. \n“She’s a tough player to defend,” Combs said. “You can be right in her face and she’s going to hit it or she’s going to go around you. She’s got a great little up-and-under move that guards aren’t used to defending.”\nBut when Braun is asked about her scoring ability – at 15.3 points per game she ranks fifth in the Big Ten – she doesn’t give herself a whole lot of credit.\n“I’ve just been feeding off my players,” she said. “They’ve been getting me the ball and setting amazing screens to get me open for easy shots that I have to make.”