The Traveler

The more you play, the better you become.

While that doesn't apply to everything or everyone (Keith Van Horn actually seemed to regress as a basketball player over time, Hayden Christensen still can't act and Mike Myers put out "The Love Guru"), it does to those who work.

Ronnie Brewer is one who works.

The former Arkansas Razorback and current member of the NBA's Utah Jazz has excelled at improving his game from year to year.

In his first season in the Association, Brewer averaged just 4.6 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game, while playing an average of 12.1 minutes.

Last season, Brewer's second in the league, his averages jumped to 12 points, 2.9 rebounds and 1.8 assists. Brewer started 76 games for the Jazz and played an average of 27.5 minutes a game. He also started every playoff game for Utah and averaged 10.2 points in those games.

This year has been Brewer's finest yet. The third-year player has started all 53 games to this point in the season. He is averaging 13.4 points, 3.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists while averaging a career-high 31.8 minutes a game.

For those of you at home, that's a pretty nice jump from his rookie season.

Fortunately for him, Brewer understands what it takes to succeed at the next level - constant improvement.

And the numbers don't lie. Brewer is doing just that.

"I think I'm improving every night, and that's what I want to do," Brewer said. "That's what you want to do as a professional. Every year you want to come in and improve in some way, and I think I've been improving, but there's still a lot of room for improvement.

"I want to continue to get better and continue to work on my game and gradually get better."

Brewer has been a big reason Utah is still in the playoff race despite injuries to former all-stars Carlos Boozer and Andrei Kirilenko.

But Brewer is quick to acknowledge the difficulty of playing without the two stars.

"It's tough because you have different lineups every night," Brewer said. "No matter who suits up, you've got to be ready to play. You've got to be ready to play on the offensive end, the defensive end, home or away. I'm definitely looking forward to everyone being healthy and just being out there playing with Booze and AK."

After having a few days off for the NBA's All-Star break, Brewer said he's looking forward to the second half of the season, when the Jazz will try to move up in the standings.

"We've got a lot of basketball left," Brewer said. "We're going to try to make a playoff push, get up there and get a good seed."

Brewer's continued improvement will certainly help Utah's chances of earning a high playoff seed.

In the meantime, Brewer can only keep doing what he's doing - constantly improving.

Bart Pohlman is the sports editor of The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every Friday.

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