Brown was a second team Class AAA All-State selection at Brooke High. While there, she averaged 19.7 points and 16.1 rebounds per game. She was also the captain of the All-Ohio Valley Athletic Conference team and she was also an all-valley first team pick and earned letters in volleyball and track. As a member of the state AAU team, Brown traveled to the 1984 national tournament in New Mexico.

Brown spent her four seasons at WVU alternating rumbling up the court with her mummified knees in tow or nursing her overworked appendages on the sidelines. She was never one to give up, though, she quietly became one of the Atlantic 10's most "under wraps" overachiever at the forward position. She was always in and out of the starting line up as her health and the height of the opposition dedicated her playing time.

Her freshman year, Brown averaged 2.8 points and 2.9 rebounds a game in 25 games. Her sophomore year, she averaged 2.2 points and 4.1 rebounds while playing in 27 games. In her junior year, she started 10 games while playing in 28 for the year. That season, she put in a string of masterful performances late in the season including crucial seven rebounds in back-to-back conference games with Penn State and Rutgers and a 13 point, nine rebound showing followed by a 10 point, 15 rebound, and five steal effort in Saturday-Sunday contests versus Duquesne and Western Kentucky earning her WVU athlete of the Week honors. That season, she averaged 2.0 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. Her senior year, she played in 26 games averaging 3.3 points and grabbing 4.1 rebounds a game. Throughout her career she was known for grabbing rebounds and wrestling opponents with reckless abandon.