Terrence Brown on pace to make Utah basketball history

Putting the Runnin' Utes guard's 2025-26 season into historical context

Utah Runnin' Utes guard Terrence Brown (2) looks to the bench in the second half of the game against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at United Supermarkets Arena. | Michael C. Johnson-Imagn Images

Terrence Brown is doing stuff no one in a Utah basketball uniform has done in over 20 years.

The 6-foot-3 guard who transferred in from Fairleigh Dickinson in the offseason is scoring at an elite clip for the Runnin' Utes (9-11, 1-6 Big 12), much like he did while finishing top 10 in the nation in points per game with the Knights last season.

With all due respect to the Northeast Conference, though, Brown's ability to consistently get buckets in the Big 12 is likely going to go down as a greater feat if he's able to keep his historic pace through Utah's final 11 regular season games and conference tournament run.

Averaging 22.2 points per game, Brown ranks No. 7 nationally and No. 2 in the Big 12 in scoring (Kansas State's PJ Haggerty leads the league at 23.4 points per game). Should Brown stay on that track, he'd become just the third Utah player since 1996-97 to put up 20 or more points per game, and the first since Andrew Bogut took home consensus national player of the year honors with 20.4 points per contest during the 2004-05 campaign.

In Utah's rich basketball history, there have been eight players to average 22 or more points for a single season. Brown would be the seventh such player to accomplish that feat based on his current pace, which would also put his 2025-26 season among the 10 best individual scoring seasons Utah has ever seen.

Brown's scoring average totals out to about 688 points when calculated across a 31-game regular season. That would be the ninth-most points scored by a Utah player in a single season, ahead of Keith Van Horn's 1995-96 season (686 points) on the program leaderboard. And that's not even accounting for what Brown might do in the Big 12 tournament.

Of course, Brown couldn't be putting up these monster numbers if he didn't have the ball in his hands a majority of the time. Indeed, Utah relies on the Minneapolis native to carry the load offensively; so much so, in fact, that Brown is on pace to finish with the second-highest usage rate of any Big 12 player since sport-reference.com began tracking the stat in 2009. Brown's 33.5 usage rate, which currently leads the Big 12 and is No. 9 nationally, would be second all-time to Trae Young's 37.1 mark in 2017-18.

Controlling the offense from the point and having a seemingly-endless green light have enabled Brown to fill up the scoring column on a nightly basis. His 14 games of 20 or more points are eight shy of tying Bogut's record of 22 set in 2004-05 and currently rank third in program history.

Bogut, the former No. 1 overall pick in the 2005 draft, is also the last Utah player to finish a season top 10 nationally in scoring.

On top of everything he does for the Runnin' Utes offensively, Brown has a strong presence on the defensive end of the floor as well. His average of 1.7 steals ranks No. 10 in the Big 12 and is on pace to crack the top 10 leaderboard for most steals in a single season in program history. He also chips in a team-best 3.9 assists per game while shooting 46.9% from the field, 38.2% from 3 and 80.1% from the free-throw line.

The last player to lead the Runnin' Utes in points, assists and steals was Timmy Allen in 2020-21. Brown would become the fifth to do so since the 2002-03 campaign.

If Brown is etch his name all across Utah's records books, he'll have to do against some pretty stiff competition. Following a two-game home stand against Oklahoma State (Jan. 31) and Arizona State (Feb. 4), the Runnin' Utes travel to Lawrence, Kansas, to take on Bill Self's Jayhawks (Feb. 7) and then come back home for a date with last season's national runner-up, Houston, at Jon M. Huntsman Center (Feb. 10). Back-to-back road games at Cincinnati (Feb. 15) and West Virginia (Feb. 18), as well as matchups against UCF (Feb. 21), Iowa State (Feb. 24) and at Arizona State (Feb. 28), round out Utah's February slate.

The Runnin' Utes conclude the regular season with Colorado (March 3) and at Baylor (March 7). The Big 12 tournament from T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, tips off March 10.