Alyssa embracing life in Brisbane, as a pro

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Alyssa Brown never knew what lied ahead for her following her UNLV career and certainly never saw herself as a guard, but she's now thriving in her first NBL1 North season at Brisbane Capitals on the back of a memorable first season in Germany.

Brown grew up in Tucson, Arizona, and then attended the University of Nevada – Las Vegas for four years. She did feel at the time that playing college basketball with the Lady Rebels would be the pinnacle of her career.

After all, growing up she dreamed of playing at college and hadn't really thought too much about what would happen after that. Potentially she even thought she'd stop playing altogether and just move into the next phase of her life.

However, she had a successful time with UNLV including being Mountain West Basketball Championship MVP as a junior and then named to the All-Defensive Team as a senior before graduating in 2025.

Then playing as a versatile forward who could play multiple positions, overseas options opened up and she enjoyed her first European experience in Germany with TK Hannover Luchse which has now led into her first six games in the NBL1 North at the Capitals.

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Having initially not been sure about playing internationally after college, Brown now couldn’t be happier with the way the past 12 months have been panned out and in fact, already knows she's returning to Hannover in Germany once this NBL1 north season with the Caps is done.

"I think I was a little bit on the fence about playing professionally and my dream was always to play collegiately," Brown said.

"So once I accomplished that I wasn’t 100 per cent sure and there wasn’t a lot of role models that I knew of who had gone overseas so it was a little bit unknown from my town, and my experience.

"I had my college coach, Lindy La Rocque, kinda push me and tell me that I should at least try it to see if I like it or not. So I went to Germany and had such a great experience there and now I'm loving it here.

"I'll actually be returning back to Germany as well for what will be my third season professionally so after it not really being my goal to start with and I just knew it was an option, now I really want to make the most of these opportunities to play internationally."

Season so far in Brisbane

Brown is now six games into her NBL1 North career with the Capitals with her delivering 22.0 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 2.5 steals in 31 minutes on average.

The Caps currently sit on a 3-6 record to be just one win out of a playoff position and she feels like the team is now starting to come together nicely.

"I love it so far and the team, the girls and the management here at Brisbane have been great," Brown said.

"I love it and the playing and competition is great too. Obviously we've had games that haven’t gone our way, but I felt like we've been competing well and are continuing to trend upwards, which is what you want to be doing at this point of the season."

Building momentum after a win

The Caps scored their third win of the season last Saturday beating the South West Metro Pirates 82-63 at home with Brown delivering 22 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocks and two steals with 7/7 free-throw shooting.

She is confident that win can be the start of a strong run for the Capitals now in the back end of the NBL1 North season.

"I think that win could definitely end up being a turning point for us and I can see us starting to go on a streak now," Brown said.

"I think we've figured out some of the challenges that we've been having the last six games and they've finally started to come together in that last win against the Pirates.

"So I think for us the biggest thing is moving forward and continuing to build on that now."

Taking on Townsville and the MVP

Coming off that win last week for the Capitals against the Pirates, the next challenge for Brown and her team is the Townsville Flames this Saturday at Auchenflower Stadium.

That includes reigning WNBL Grand Final MVP and 2023 NBL1 North season and Grand Final MVP Courtney Woods who Brown will face for the first time and try to stop her reaching her season averages of 26.8 points, 9.7 assists and 8.5 rebounds.

"I've seen her stats and I've seen the press that comes out about her and everything about her, and I'm definitely impressed," Brown said.

"She sounds and looks like a great player so I'm excited to see how we're going to challenge her and make it tough for her.

"She's averaging almost a triple double so it's going to be tough on our defence, but I think that we'll just have to go out there and compete."

Difference in college-Europe-Australia

Whether it's the difference in officiating, the physicality, the 24-second shot clock, the faster pace and the less structured play, it's been a steep learning curve over the past 12 months for Brown coming out of college.

She was used to playing in a system where every play was carefully planned and the players were expected to carry that out exactly, but both in Germany and now with the Capitals she's noticed the players have more freedom to think on their feet.

She has enjoyed that along with dealing with the adjustments to the different styles firstly from college to Germany, and now from Germany to the NBL1.

"I think in college there was a lot more systems being ran depending on where you went to college and it's a lot my strategic where we knew exactly what shots we wanted from these people so you couldn’t play much just on instinct and feel," Brown said.

"Then in Germany it was a little bit of a change and they played a little more out of transition than I was expecting coming from a team that ran a lot of systems.

"I had to adjust to that and it was a lot more physical there, and where I had been playing in the Mountain West they weren’t particularly huge in terms of the height of the players.

"Then going to Europe, I was actually of a three/four and I was a small post, and I wasn’t used to being the small post on a team.

"And now coming here and being a guard has been a little bit different again, but the physicality in Europe was by far probably the most physical and the officiating did take a game or two both in Europe and here to figure out how to use it to my advantage.

"Even the shot clock is different so it's a little faster pace than college too so I was extremely tired after my first game, but I feel like I'm adjusting pretty well."

Being able to play multiple positions/roles

Growing up and Brown never quite knew if she would end up having the stature of a guard or forward, or anything in between, so with the help of her dad, the focus was to make sure she had the skills to play any position.

That's why now she has the ball handling and playmaking skills to bring the ball up the floor, she can score at all three levels, and she can certainly play in the post which she's proud to be able to have so many strings to her bow.

"Part of my upbringing was not really knowing when I was going to stop growing because I have an older sister who's 5'6 and I'm obviously 6'1 so we didn’t really know where I was going to end up," Brown said.

"So in the early trainings with my dad he tried to make sure that I could play any position and it was definitely a bonus when I was getting recruited to college and then playing in college having the experience and knowledge of what other positions are supposed to be doing, or are going to do.

"Now playing pro, being able to move around definitely keeps me on the court longer."

Returning to same German team

Brown did enjoy her time both on the court and off the court with Hannover in Germany to start her professional career so much that before she left to come to Brisbane, had already signed to return for the 2026/27 season.

She performed well on the ort for them with 16.3 points, 7.2 rebounds and 2.0 steals a game, but it was the all-round experience including how she was looked after off the court that ensured she wanted to return.

"It's definitely nice and one of the big reasons I did want to go back there to have that security," Brown said.

"That club does have its ups and downs in terms of pros and cons, I'll say financially they can struggle a little bit so that can turn away a lot of players.

"But for me, the biggest thing was the people and they always took such good care of me. They made sure that I was good and I had a great experience with them so I was willing to come back and play with them."

Being able to play 12 months a year

While Brown likes the idea of continuing to do what she's started to do with her professional career and play virtually all-year round going from Europe and coming back to Australia, she always doesn’t want to burn out.

She has already committed to a second season back in Germany with Hannover and she would be more than open to another NBL1 season in 2027 given how much she's enjoying her time in Brisbane so far.

But a lot will just depend if she needs a mental or physical break or not.

"I'm hoping that health-wise that I can continue playing all-year round and I am enjoying Australia so I would like to have that option to come back again next year," Brown said.

"I know that playing four seasons back-to-back could be a little tiring if I think about how I could be feeling this time next year so I don't want to commit to anything just yet and it is on my radar that I'll have to evaluate where I'm at by the end of that next season in Germany.

"But I would 100 per cent come back to Australia, it's great people and a great competition, and I've loved it out here so far."