Maryland guard Lexie Brown shoots over Nebraska guard Natalie Romeo earlier this season in College Park, Md. As the accolades and awards continue to mount for Maryland guard Lexie Brown, her father — former NBA star Dee Brown — happily concedes that the student has already outdone the teacher at the college level.

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — Former NBA star Dee Brown taught his daughter all about the game of basketball Unfortunately, he doesn’t often get to see Maryland sharpshooter Lexie Brown play in person

He will this weekend.

The Sacramento assistant coach and former slam dunk champion is taking a break from his job and putting on his “dad hat” to see his daughter play in the women’s Final Four.

Lexie Brown could not be more excited.

“It’s going to be great. He couldn’t have come at a better time,” Brown said Thursday, shortly before the Terrapins headed to Tampa, Florida, for a showdown with Connecticut in the national semifinals on Sunday night.

“My mom was there for the first-round games, and when I look up at her, a calm comes over me,” Lexie said. “When I see my dad in the stands, it’s calm times 100. It’s like, ‘I got this. My dad’s here.’ I can’t wait.”

Her father is pretty pumped, too, even though he has watched Lexie play plenty of times this season on television and video. After every game, he calls with advice.

“I’m a dad first. I just tell her: ‘I’m proud of you, way to play hard.’ And then I’m a coach second,” said the 46-year-old Brown, who will miss the Kings’ game Sunday night against the Utah Jazz. “I’ll say, `Listen, you could have done this, you have shot this, you missed this pass here, you could have played defense better on this possession.’ But that’s probably very quick, and my dad hat comes out first to make sure she knows I’m proud of her and I’m always watching and supporting her.”

Even from afar.

“My daughter understands my job,” Brown said. “She knows I can talk to her every day, but this makes it more special. I’m nervous, probably more than she is just because it’s my first game all year.”

Lexie Brown wears No. 4, the same number her father wore in college at Jacksonville. This season she was named to the All-Big Ten first team, voted Most Outstanding Player at the Big Ten Tournament and was one of three Terrapins to average in double figures in scoring.

The 5-foot-9 sophomore guard is a big reason why Maryland has been in the Final Four in each of the past two years.

“She’s accomplished a lot more in her two years in college than I achieved in my whole college career,” Dee Brown boasts.