Cameron Lee Brink (born December 31, 2001) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. Brink attended

Mountainside High School Mountainside High School is one of six comprehensive high schools in Beaverton, Oregon. It opened in September 2017 with students in grades 9 and 10. It added a junior class in the fall of 2018, and a senior class the following year. The school gr ...

and Southridge High School, both in

Beaverton, Oregon Beaverton is a city in Washington County, in the U.S. state of Oregon with a small portion bordering Portland in the Tualatin Valley. The city is among the main cities that make up the Portland metropolitan area. Its population was 97,494 at the ...

, where she earned

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger ...

honors and was ranked the number three player in her class by

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. As a freshman at Stanford, she helped her team win the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

. In her sophomore season, she was named Pac-12 Co-Player of the Year and led her team to the Final Four. As a junior, Brink was named

WBCA Defensive Player of the Year The WBCA NCAA Division I Defensive Player of the Year is awarded by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association to the best defensive player in NCAA Division I women's basketball. The winner is selected from among the winners of the defensive player ...

and became Stanford's all-time leader in blocks. Brink has represented the United States at the youth international level. She won gold medals at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup and the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup.

Early life

Cameron Brink was born on December 31, 2001, in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...

, to Greg Brink and Michelle Bain-Brink. Her family are close friends with the family of

Stephen Curry Wardell Stephen Curry II ( ; born March 14, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time, ...

, whose mother, Sonya, is Brink's godmother. Her mother was roommates with Sonya at

Virginia Tech Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...

, where her father played with Curry's father,

Dell Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies. Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...

, on the

basketball team Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

. Brink lived in

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

for three years because of her parents' jobs at

Nike Nike often refers to: * Nike (mythology), a Greek goddess who personifies victory * Nike, Inc., a major American producer of athletic shoes, apparel, and sports equipment Nike may also refer to: People * Nike (name), a surname and feminine given ...

and returned to the United States when she was in sixth grade. She was not interested in basketball until age 10, preferring art as a child, but started playing the sport in Amsterdam and joined a club in Oregon one year later.

High school career

Brink played basketball for Southridge High School in

for three seasons. As a freshman, she averaged 12.5

points Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

, 8.5

rebounds 'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...

and 3.7 blocks per game, leading her team to a Class 6A state title. Brink won a second straight state championship as a sophomore, averaging 17.1 points, 10.5 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game. She was named Oregon

Gatorade Player of the Year The Gatorade Player of the Year awards are given annually to up and coming high school student-athletes in the United States. They are given for boys' baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine playe ...

. As a junior, Brink averaged 21.3 points and 11.1 rebounds per game, and led Southridge to the 6A state final. She received ''

USA Today ''USA Today'' (stylized in all uppercase) is an American daily middle-market newspaper and news broadcasting company. Founded by Al Neuharth on September 15, 1982, the newspaper operates from Gannett's corporate headquarters in Tysons, Virgini ...

'' Oregon Player of the Year honors and repeated as Oregon Gatorade Player of the Year. For her senior season, Brink transferred to

in Beaverton. She averaged 19.7 points, 13.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.5 steals and 2.5 blocks per game as a senior. She missed five games with a high ankle sprain and played through injury at the state tournament. Brink was selected to play in the

McDonald's All-American Game The McDonald's All-American Game is the all-star basketball game played each year for American and Canadian boys' and girls' high school basketball graduates. Consisting of the top players, each team plays a single exhibition game after the concl ...

and the

Jordan Brand Classic The Jordan Brand Classic is a high school All-Star basketball game played annually in April. The game's rosters feature the best and most highly recruited high school boys in the senior class including alumns like Chris Paul, Carmelo Anthony, Bl ...

, which were both canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. She also played

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

in high school, winning the state title as a freshman at Southridge.

Recruiting

Brink was considered a five-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * '' Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (E ...

and the number three player in the 2020 class by

. On November 7, 2018, she committed to

Stanford Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is considere ...

over scholarship offers from

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

and

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

. Brink described Stanford as her dream school and was drawn there by her relationships with head coach

Tara VanDerveer Tara Ann VanDerveer (born June 26, 1953) is an American basketball coach who has been the head women's basketball coach at Stanford University since 1985. Designated the Setsuko Ishiyama Director of Women's Basketball, VanDerveer led the Stanfor ...

and assistant coach

Kate Paye Katherine Anne Paye (born March 6, 1974) is a former collegiate and professional basketball player. She is currently the women's basketball associate head coach at Stanford University. Early life and college career Paye was born at the medical c ...

. She also felt that attending the university would benefit her after her playing career due to its strong academic prowess.

College career

On November 25, 2020, Brink made her college debut, recording 17 points and 9 rebounds in a 108–40 win over Cal Poly. On March 5, 2021, she posted a season-high 24 points while also having 11 rebounds and 5 blocks in a 79–45 victory against

Oregon State Oregon State University (OSU) is a public land-grant, research university in Corvallis, Oregon. OSU offers more than 200 undergraduate-degree programs along with a variety of graduate and doctoral degrees. It has the 10th largest engineering col ...

at the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals. Brink was named to the all-tournament team after Stanford won the Pac-12 Tournament. Brink helped her team win its first

since 1992, contributing 10 points, 6 rebounds and 3 blocks in a 54–53 win over

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

in the title game. As a freshman, Brink averaged 9.9 points, 6.6 rebounds and 2.8 blocks per game, and was selected to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team and All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention. She set a program single-season record with 88 blocks. In her sophomore season, Brink assumed a leading role for Stanford with

Haley Jones Haley Jones (born May 23, 2001) is an American professional basketball player for the Atlanta Dream of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played her American collegiate basketball for the Stanford Cardinal women's basket ...

. On November 25, 2021, she recorded 21 points, 22 rebounds and 5 blocks in a 69–66 win over fourth-ranked

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. On January 30, 2022, Brink had 25 points and 15 rebounds in a 75–69 victory over eighth-ranked

. On February 6, she posted a career-high 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds in an 83–57 win against

USC USC most often refers to: * University of South Carolina, a public research university ** University of South Carolina System, the main university and its satellite campuses **South Carolina Gamecocks, the school athletic program * University of ...

. Brink helped Stanford win the Pac-12 Tournament, where she was named to the all-tournament team. In the Elite Eight of the 2022 NCAA tournament, she posted 10 points, 6 rebounds and 6 blocks in a 59–50 win over

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, leading her team back to the Final Four. As a sophomore, Brink averaged 13.5 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.6 blocks per game, setting a new program single-season record with 91 blocks. She led Stanford with 13

double-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

s. She earned Pac-12 Player of the Year from the media, Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year, All-Pac-12 Team and All-Defensive Team honors. Brink was named a third-team All-American by the

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...

(AP) and

United States Basketball Writers Association The United States Basketball Writers Association (USBWA) was founded in 1956 by National Collegiate Athletic Association director Walter Byers to serve the interests of journalists who cover college basketball. Scholarships The USBWA annually awa ...

(USBWA), and made the

Women's Basketball Coaches Association The Women's Basketball Coaches Association is an association of coaches of women's basketball teams at all levels. The organization was formed in 1981, with the goal of addressing the needs of women's basketball coaches. The mission of the WBCA ...

(WBCA) All-America team. On January 29, 2023, Brink recorded her first triple-double, with 16 points, 11 rebounds and a career-high 10 blocks in a 62–54 win over

. She surpassed

Jayne Appel Jayne Appel-Marinelli (born May 14, 1988) is a retired center who last played for the San Antonio Stars of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2016. She played collegiate basketball at Stanford University. High school career ...

as Stanford's all-time leader in blocks on February 17, after posting 12 points, 10 rebounds and six blocks in a 50–47 victory over USC. As a junior, Brink averaged 15.1 points, 9.6 rebounds and 3.5 blocks per game, and was named All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. She received the

award as the top defensive player in the nation. Brink earned second-team All-American honors from the AP and the USBWA, while repeating as a WBCA All-American. She ranked third among Division I players in blocks per game and broke her own single-season program record with 118 blocks. On August 14, 2023 Brink signed an

NIL Nil may refer to: * nil (the number 0, zero) Acronyms * NIL (programming language), an implementation of the Lisp programming language * Student athlete compensation, Name, Image and Likeness, a set of rules in the American National Collegiate At ...

deal with

New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), best known as simply New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch ...

, becoming the first women's basketball player for New Balance.

Career statistics

College

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2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 32 , , 20 , , 18.4 , , .578 , , .367 , , .647 , , 6.7 , , 0.9 , , 0.6 , , 2.7 , , 1.3 , , 9.9 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 35 , , 34 , , 21.9 , , .556 , , .355 , , .615 , , 8.1 , , 1.2 , , 0.9 , , 2.6 , , 1.6 , , 13.5 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 34 , , 34 , , 24.8 , , .486 , , .213 , , .848 , , 9.6 , , 1.8 , , 0.5 , , 3.5 , , 2.4 , , 15.1

National team career

Brink represented the United States at the 2018 FIBA Under-17 World Cup in Belarus. She averaged 3.6 points and 4.6 rebounds per game, as her team won the gold medal. Brink helped the United States win another gold medal at the 2019 FIBA Under-19 World Cup in Thailand, averaging 2.0 points and 3.4 rebounds per game.

References

External links

Stanford Cardinal bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brink, Cameron 2001 births Living people American women's basketball players Basketball players from Oregon Basketball players from New Jersey Sportspeople from Beaverton, Oregon Sportspeople from Princeton, New Jersey Small forwards Power forwards Stanford Cardinal women's basketball players McDonald's High School All-Americans All-American college women's basketball players 21st-century American women Southridge High School (Beaverton, Oregon) alumni