The Arkansas State women's basketball team was picked to win the Sun Belt Conference regular season based on a slew of returning guards, most notably defending conference player of the year Aundrea Gamble.
Coach Brian Boyer was reluctant to accept the favorite role, considering his team's lack of experience in the post.
Halfway through the season, Boyer's biggest worry hasn't been much of a concern thanks to the improvement of a role player and a converted guard.
ASU (10-6, 5-1) is second in the Sun Belt standings heading into today's 3:05 p.m. game against Texas State (9-6, 4-2) largely because of the emergence of Jasmine Hunt (8.8 points, 5.1 rebounds) and Khadija Brown-Haywood (10.8 points, 5.5 rebounds).
While Hunt has played at a higher level than Boyer expected, Brown-Haywood's move from guard to forward has helped ASU more than anything else.
The decision that led to Brown-Haywood, a 5-11 junior from Centralia, Ill., moving to forward came during the first few days of practice. Boyer said it was an easy decision considering ASU's wealth of experienced guards and its need to get Brown-Haywood more minutes.
"She's too good of a player not to be playing," Boyer said. "We saw that would be the best opportunity for her to play. It helped with her playing time, and it's been good for our team."
Brown-Haywood averaged 1.1 points and 1.1 minutes in 7.0 minutes per game last season while playing guard behind Gamble, Hanna Qedan, Brittney Gill and Jamie Ruffins. All four of those players are either starting or in ASU's rotation this year, so it was going to be hard to find minutes for Brown-Haywood at the position.
Boyer had plenty of openings in the frontcourt. Jane Morrill, Jalen O'Bannon, Carlisha Wyatt and Carlette Wyatt combined for 69 starts last year, but all either exhausted their eligibility or transferred, leaving ASU with no forwards with starting experience.
So he turned to Brown-Haywood, who played forward in one game last year.
"I figured it was going to happen, but I didn't think it was going to be a permanent thing," Brown-Haywood said. "Maybe a game or two where I have to switch back and forth. I like it. It just came as a surprise that I would be doing it permanently."
Brown-Haywood said she has had a few games where a bigger forward has taken advantage of her smaller frame, but Boyer said for the most part she's held her own. He saw it most in a Dec. 14 loss at Kansas, where Brown-Haywood scored only four points but did well enough as ASU kept it close for much of the game against a team with a bigger lineup.
The position switch has become a bigger benefit on the offensive end, where Brown-Haywood's quickness provides a matchup problem for bigger post players. While Boyer said Brown-Haywood is a different type of player than Morrill, ASU's seventh all-time leading scorer, Brown-Haywood's jump shots provide just as many fits for opponents.
Brown-Haywood is averaging 12.7 points and 6.5 rebounds in six Sun Belt games, and she tied a career-high with 21 points Jan. 5 in a victory at Louisiana-Monroe.
"She's just a good matchup because of her quickness, and she's shooting the ball extremely well," Boyer said. "Defensively, as long as she's able to use her quickness to offset her size, she does good things for us."
Sports on 01/17/2015