Amida Brimah needs help

[JSM1970]

Also, especially since ultimately it improves their ability to play at the next level.

Facey has a body for a 3 or stretch 4, but his game doesn't really match that. Brimah just needs strength and muscle.

Brimah and Facey have both shown improvement in several areas of the game. Both are better free throw shooters and are fouling less per minute. Facey is much better as an offensive rebounder. But where they have both fallen short is that they are both still very weak. Brimah has had injuries that have hindered his progress, but neither has put in the time in the weight room to make them effective players. You can say that they are limited by their body type, but when I was deployed with young Marines I frequently saw people with similar body types put on significant muscle over a 7 month period. you can certainly blame the coaching staff for not holding them accountable, but most of this has to fall on the player

 

[InKembaITrust]

Since Facey and Brimah walked on campus as freshmans I've been waiting patiently for their physical development of putting on at least 20 pounds of muscle. Haven't seen it at all. Whoever is working with these guys in the gym and giving them advice on how to bulk up is not doing their job to their best abilities.

 

[7774]

You don't think Oriakhi or Boone improved from their freshman years? You're the one who needs to look at the stats.

I have. Which specific stats do you think they improved to any large degree?

 

[imno1]

Should I question Phil's and Facey's offseason commitment or does our S&C program just suck. You expect to see a stronger more powerful player by year 3. As far as Brimah is concerned. Ollie's got to let him play even with fouls. He might be flawed but we are definitely at our best with him on the floor. And if he's only getting 19 mpg and not fouling out it makes no sense.

 

[intlzncster]

A wasted four years. His rebound and put back to save our NCAA bacon in 2014 don't count.

Wake up.

LOL. One of the most important individual plays in UCONN history doesn't count. Sounds like a reasonable perspective.

People don't want to accept that Amidah's ceiling isn't as high as they projected. Listen, to all those folks, you were and are wrong. Amida is limited. That's it.

 

[ctchamps]

Great thoughts - thanks
That's what some people on this board like to do - blame the coach, have unreal expectations, and are just plain oblivious to the obvious
Brimah came in as a project - plain and simple. He's no Okafor, he's AB. He doesn't have the basketball experience of even a Hilton A. I never thought he would be a NBA player but could be for a year or two on size alone.
Nolan was a nobody and not expected to do anything beyond a back up BUT he showed some fire, spunk and talent during the 2014 NC run
Facey came in as a NYC POY, yes, but never projected in my eyes, to be a 5 or even a 4. But that is all he has played. He is out of position for his size. BUT I do think he has talent but has not shown that where casted thus far.
In my circle of 20 plus close UConn friends I could count on one hand those who thought this game would be won. Playing a Cincy team that is a bad matchup, coming off a loss and on their court on senior day.
Falling behind by 8 set up a bad base - this team cannot play from behind very well at all.

We may disagree about DHam but I'm with you and @selles about the progression of our bigs.

You might want to add that KF, although a NYC POY, was late to the game and is not a native NYC guy. In HS an athletic freak, and Kentan is very athletic, can be quite effective at masking the team instincts missing from his game. That gets exposed quickly at the Div 1 college level. He's was a project as well as AB was, PN was always going to be a back up center at best. The big question will be SE and even he is a project. All these projects I still think are primarily the result of the coaching change and NCAA sanctions more than coaching failures.
And the development of AB in the SMU game wasn't something he developed on his own. I would say it was absolutely the result of coaching. In the Cinci game I felt he reverted to his emotional instincts until the end of the game where he tremendously impacted things and almost helped the team get a victory in spite of that one mistake mau points out.

 

[Spaceman213J]

Brimah has developed a little, but he's been hampered by a few things. First, he basically missed the summer between freshmen and sophomore years. I think that hurts him the most is who he faces in practice. I'm sorry but abusing Phil Nolan constantly will not help you improve. Most of Brimah's problems are between the ears. I understand he hasn't developed like some thought he might or hoped, but that's why talented centers go quickly in the draft. They're rare.

 

[gtcam]

Thank you Mau. Amida tries to block EVERYTHING and as you referenced, many times he foolishly goes for the block only to result in an easy put back. I'm sorry, but from a consistency standpoint Brimah is one of the most overrated players in the country. Following up the game the other night with 2 points and a handful of rebounds is inexcusable.

Against Cinci yesterday: AB had his issues, PN had his issues, KF had his issues and, yes, SM had his issues (how dare I say that)
None of these guys were effective against Cinci's toughness and none looked for offense.
All played lackluster defense (yes AB had some blocks) by being out of position and not "walling" their marks
None hit the boards and were mostly playing behind their men in rebounding opportunities - UConn was killed on the boards on both ends
However, all have had their bright moments so we know they have it in them - when will they ever do it with consistency?
When will one of the others besides SM exhibit some scoring? Maybe UConn doesn't want scoring a priority for their bigs but wouldn't it be nice!

 

[Cheddie]

Facey is the one who bothers me the most.

I don't think Phil Nolan has much talent and the fact that he is going to play four years and graduate from UConn is something of a monument to the kid's heart and mind. So if he's a career 1.5 point, 1.5 rebound player, so be it.

But Facey looks like a player. He yo-yos in and out of the rotation and it doesn't seem predicted on anything other than sometimes they see him and sometimes they don't.

Sometimes I see Glenn Miller perched on the edge of his seat and I wish it was a trebuchet that would fling him to some low-major job somewhere.

Trebuchet? Making us hit the dictionary on the Boneyard???

 

[CAHUSKY]

Trebuchet? Making us hit the dictionary on the Boneyard???

I was trying to figure out how the font I use for my emails in outlook was able to launch Coach Miller from his chair.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Since Facey and Brimah walked on campus as freshmans I've been waiting patiently for their physical development of putting on at least 20 pounds of muscle. Haven't seen it at all. Whoever is working with these guys in the gym and giving them advice on how to bulk up is not doing their job to their best abilities.

I don't care how much weight Facey puts on. He's 6-10, bouncy as hell, and since his freshman year he's shown flashes of real potential offensively, whether in terms of knocking down jumpers or taking the ball to the bucket. My concern is that we don't see more (any?) development in that area. When he was a freshman I was of the opinion that by his junior year he'd not only be a starter but one of the better players in the program, with real potential for success at the next level. Instead, he's basically the same player he was as a freshman.

 

[mauconnfan]

I knew you were going to reference that play as soon as I saw that you had responded to me. It was a bad play, and it cost us a bucket. But that's one play. We were a better team with him on the court today than with him on the bench.

No we weren't.

 

[7774]

I don't care how much weight Facey puts on. He's 6-10, bouncy as hell, and since his freshman year he's shown flashes of real potential offensively, whether in terms of knocking down jumpers or taking the ball to the bucket. My concern is that we don't see more (any?) development in that area. When he was a freshman I was of the opinion that by his junior year he'd not only be a starter but one of the better players in the program, with real potential for success at the next level. Instead, he's basically the same player he was as a freshman.

I don't know how you can say he's basically the same player as his freshman year when he was so lost in half court defensive sets his freshman year that he couldn't even be put in the game without being a complete liability most of the time.

 

[champs99and04]

No we weren't.

He was a +13 in a game we lost by five. Not sure how you can say we weren't better with him on the floor. It's not even up for debate.

 

[mauconnfan]

He was a +13 in a game we lost by five. Not sure how you can say we weren't better with him on the floor. It's not even up for debate.

That plus has no validity to it, who's playing well and making shots while you're in there etc etc.. He was the player we saw previous to the dream game vs SMU, when he was on the court there was little difference than when Facey, Nolan or Enoch was on the court. A little, yes but his impact on the interior was a negative not a positive I promise. Let's not try to find something that wasn't there just because he "showed signs" one game. He went back to being "he is what he is" again.