BEN BRUST
"I just liked his aggressiveness; he played with
no fear,'' Gard said. "His first shot was kind of a circus shot; he was driving to his left and shot it off one foot, but that gave him a little confidence. "He showed a lot of the things that we had
seen out of him in practices last year. If you give him space, he'll shoot it and he'll keep backing up and keep shooting it. "Some of that is the scout team coming out.
He'll have to dial it in a little bit more. But I'd rather have him that way — gung-ho and firing — than having to encourage him to be aggres- sive.''
Brust played a total of 45 minutes as a fresh-
man. Appearing in 15 games, four in the Big Ten, he accounted for just 10 points on 4-of-16 shooting from the field; 2-of-10 from beyond the 3-point arc. Gard felt Brust handled his orientation the right way, despite limited playing time and suc- cess.
36 » VARSITY NOVEMBER 3, 2011
"Taking advantage of op- portunities is the key,'' Brust said. "I don't think I did the best job of that last year. But I learned a lot from them and know what it feels like to be out there.''
"He learned; he kept his eyes and ears open,'' Gard said. "He didn't get caught up into think- ing, 'I'm coming out of high school as an all-state player and I need to play right away.' "He understood that he had some work to do and some pretty good players in front of him.'' The transition from high school sharp-shooter to college scout teamer was challenging. "It was tough in the moment,'' said Brust who
