LITTLE ROCK, Ark. ? Following a collegiate career which saw him earn All-Sun Belt honors in each of his two seasons at UALR, while leading the Trojans to back-to-back East Division titles, Brandon Freeman has spent the last two seasons working his way through the professional basketball ranks.
After graduating from UALR, Freeman spent time with the Little Rock ArchAngels of the World Basketball Association (WBA) and the Arkansas RimRockers of the National Basketball Association Development League (NBDL).
This season, Freeman signed with the Gent Dragons in Belgium and leads the league in scoring at 30.0 points per game through his first seven games with the team. A native of Greenwood, S.C., Freeman is shooting .541 percent from the field (53-of-98), .862 from the free-throw line (50-of-58), and .383 from three-point range (18-of-47).
The UALR Sports Information Office recently had a chance to catch up with Freeman and find out about his experiences overseas and adjustment to life abroad.
How has the experience been so far?
“Coming to Europe was a good transition for me to elevate my game in the areas I needed to. The NBA is still one of the dreams I have, but right now I'm just focusing on what I have going on in front of me and trying to improve my game everyday to get to that level. Hopefully I'll be able to get into an NBA camp this summer.”
How is the basketball different overseas?
“The play is kind of the same. There are a lot of up-tempo, fastbreak plays. The biggest problem for me has been adjusting to the referees. A lot of the fouls they call in the states, they don't call over here. For me, I just need to be more aggressive and not worry about what the refs are calling because you can't control them anyway. I just need to play my game and not worry about the referees.”
How have you adjusted to life in a foreign country?
“I thought coming over here it was going to be a big culture shock, but when I got here the team welcomed me with open arms and really made me feel at home. It was a good situation for me to sign with them when I did, and Gent has been a nice town.”
How do you spend your time when you're not playing basketball?
“I'm either at home watching television, or on the internet. I go downtown a lot to walk around and get more familiar with the city. I also spend a lot of time visiting with my teammates.”
What's been the hardest part of living overseas?
“The hardest part is being so far away from my friends and family. I've been away from home for a long time, but I've never been such a long distance away. But this is a great experience to see something you've never seen before and explore the world, while doing something you love at the same time.”
Do you keep tabs on the Trojans? Any predictions for this season?
“I just recently checked the box score from their game with OBU. I try to keep up with them as much as possible and talk with some of the players to see how they're doing. From what I've seen in the box scores, and the way they were picked to win the league, I think it will all come down to everybody as a team coming together and buying into what coach Shields wants to do.
When I was there, nobody cared about who got the credit. We weren't worried about who was scoring, who was getting the rebounds or who was being talked about in the paper. If they can do that this season, they have a chance to do something special. I was around them all summer and they've got a great group of guys.”
Anything you would like to add?
“I want to give a big thanks to the coaches for helping me polish up my game and teaching me a lot of things I didn't know. They helped me better myself in life and as a basketball player. They stayed on me and everybody else to graduate. That was the main thing I liked about them. They stayed on us hard, made us get our grades, and it worked out in the end because I got a degree.”
