Amida Brimah to UConn

[HuskyBballFan]

We out-recruited Lasalle for a guy named Hilton Armstrong. Who the hell cares who else he was looking at? Whatever he is now will not define what he will be at UConn.
uconngb, Monday at 4:17 PM Report
#47 Like Reply

Thank you for proving my point. That poster did not call him the next Hilton Armstrong. He merely pointed out that we shouldn't be so quick to judge recruits based on which other schools are recruiting him. Hilton is not the only example either.

 

[Rico444]

We out-recruited Lasalle for a guy named Hilton Armstrong. Who the hell cares who else he was looking at? Whatever he is now will not define what he will be at UConn.
uconngb, Monday at 4:17 PM Report
#47 Like Reply

That's not saying he's the next Hilton Armstrong. That's saying that a player doesn't have to be recruited by high-majors to eventually be a really good college player. But twist it however you want.

 

[Pmurph678]

We out-recruited Lasalle for a guy named Hilton Armstrong. Who the hell cares who else he was looking at? Whatever he is now will not define what he will be at UConn.
uconngb, Monday at 4:17 PM Report
#47 Like Reply

Wow, you actually think this proves your point? If you're going to be negative all the time, at least be right occasionally

 

[Calhoun's Court]

Bottom line if you can add athletic big that your staff deems has good upside it's a no brainer.
Good job KO and Hobbs.

 

[rip7774]

I don't post much anymore but I try to post when I have something substantive to add to the discussion.

Really like what poster said above about not all scholarships should b treated the same bc of circumstances.

What I like about Brimah is the staff made him a priority pretty quickly and went hard for him. We heard names like Rooks and maybe one or two others, but everything I've heard for weeks has been is Brimah is their guy, and certainly all those trips to Fla. indicate that.

 

[freescooter]

Bottom line if you can add athletic big that your staff deems has good upside it's a no brainer.
Good job KO and Hobbs.

Its a fine job. Just doesn't prove anything about his recruiting abilities. This kid, like the others we've landed this year are guys UConn should be able to get any day of the week. The trick is to add a big time recruit or two to really make things go. Role player/project kids are important to program growth over all. Many think if we had a Beverley in 2006 we'd have 4 national championships. But in this era you need the stars too.

 

[Gurleyman]

Many think if we had a Beverley in 2006 we'd have 4 national championships.

You really love to beat the everloving crap out of strawmen. Did the scarecrow in Wizard Of Oz creep you out as a child?

There aren't really any stars available in the spring signing period. Brimah falls pretty close to the best available player category.

 

[aboogieee]

Ollie is finally locked into a contract (stability) & will have the opportunity to create something really special with the 2014 Class.. give it time. But as far as UConn rolling in 5* recruits year-in & year-out, has any1 seen our Classes over the past few years? With the exception of 2011, there's nothing to rave about.. If we dont land the 5* recruit, every1 is frustrated but when the under the radar recruits we do land turn out OK or make it to the next level, we applaud the ability to develop talent. We just have to Be patient..

 

[Mooch82]

Ah, but there were reasons for both of those signings.

Mandeldove was the first signing in the year when we had 10 scholarships available at once. All we had was Adrien, Austrie and AJ Price. That was our roster. We needed warm bodies. Later, we pulled in Curtis Kelly, and in the spring, Hasheem Thabeet (plus another project - Gavin - who developed into a starter). Had we not gotten Thabeet, Mandeldove might have actually had a larger role here. Once he was relegated to backup duty by players in his own class, he apparently turned his attention to enjoying college life.

Bradley - I think partially anyway - was signed when we were in the middle of our APR woes. He was a very bright kid brought in to be a backup with the idea that he may develop, but if not, we'll at least improve our APR scores. I can't prove that, but it seems to make a lot of sense. And we still don't know how he would have panned out with good health and an opportunity this year. I was bummed to see him go.

He was a different sort of a project, but Beverly was a reach at guard who was brought in when we had our entire roster coming back and it was impossible to recruit anyone (no playing time available). So we took a flyer on kid who could be a good fit without needing a lot of playing time (we were really, really lucky the next year to sign a willing-to-be-patient kid named Kemba Walker, who knew he would sit for a year behind a Price-Dyson backcourt).

Point is, every signing can't be treated equally. There's often a back story or extenuating circumstances that explains why you might reach a little to a kid who you hope might be a diamond in the rough. That's the case with this class - it was tough to recruit late this year with the sudden coaching turnover, and we needed immediate help in a few places (backup guard, post defender).

Not true, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Curtis Kelly was the first commit of that class by a pretty wide margin, and then we got Will Harris and I believe Ramar Smith as well before Mandeldove and Dyson committed on the same weekend. We then got Sticks, Eaves, and Wiggins (after Smith had decommited) later in the fall and then Edwards and Thabeet in the spring.

 

[7774]

Its a fine job. Just doesn't prove anything about his recruiting abilities. This kid, like the others we've landed this year are guys UConn should be able to get any day of the week. The trick is to add a big time recruit or two to really make things go. Role player/project kids are important to program growth over all. Many think if we had a Beverley in 2006 we'd have 4 national championships. But in this era you need the stars too.

So basically in your mind whether a recruit is "big time" or not is completely dependent on his high school ranking, and his performance on the court in college is irrelevant? Obviously you are correct that you do need stars to win, but it's equally obvious that a ton of our stars have not been "big time" recruits.

 

[caw]

Its a fine job. Just doesn't prove anything about his recruiting abilities. This kid, like the others we've landed this year are guys UConn should be able to get any day of the week. The trick is to add a big time recruit or two to really make things go. Role player/project kids are important to program growth over all. Many think if we had a Beverley in 2006 we'd have 4 national championships. But in this era you need the stars too.

Beverly in 2006? Huh? You must mean AJ? Austrie was on the team in 2006 and better than Beverly was.

I do agree with you though, these are all kids UConn should be able to get, and has. Still good gets.

Have to see what happens in 2014, in terms of big time recruits. With 4-5 spots open then, UConn will need at least one big time player. Of course, if UConn gets 4-5 guys ranked 60-100, it would still be a fantastic class.

 

[HooperScooper]

Eric Bossi, a Rivals.com recruiting analyst, just posted this about Brimah. Sounds exactly like the kind of big men UConn has done well with. You have to trust the coaches and forget about the recruiting rankings. Just remember that there are few immediate high impact big men in high school. And those guys usually last 1 year in college. Give me a guy like this any day of the week and I'll take my chances.

Been doing more digging on this guy and have talked to a few people I trust deeply who have seen an awful lot of Brimah. They feel like he's coming on really fast and will end up being a pretty good player at UConn. A lot of Josh Boone comparisons have been thrown my way in terms of potential impact if it all comes together for him. Will be raw early but could pay huge dividends after a year or two in Storrs.

 

[aboogieee]

“He’s just a great kid, an extremely hard worker," Hernandez said. "He’s very, very dedicated, he’s focused. I’m not surprised at all about the success he’s had … or is going to have in the future.”

So why did Brimah commit on Sunday night, so early in his official visit?

“He said he was very comfortable when he got there. He always got along very well with the coaches. They’ve got a good history with the big guys. His biggest thing is having the opportunity to play in the NBA at some point. One of the criteria was getting him prepared for that, from a playing standpoint and an exposure standpoint.”

“Two main things: having the opportunity to play right away –obviously nobody can guarantee playing time, but knowing there’s at least an opportunity. He didn’t want to be red-shirted, nor did his guardian. And, to be somewhere that prepares him to play in the NBA, hopefully. We all think he can get there.”

 

[rip7774]

Great stuff Scooper, I have heard from people I trust that he has terrific feet, not sure if he has a soccer background.

+1 on ready-made bigs, few & far between and 1-yr guys.

I reiterate the staff made this guy a priority in recent months and I don't see this as a Garrison-type reach at all.

 

[Gurleyman]

Not true, but why let the facts get in the way of a good story? Curtis Kelly was the first commit of that class by a pretty wide margin, and then we got Will Harris and I believe Ramar Smith as well before Mandeldove and Dyson committed on the same weekend. We then got Sticks, Eaves, and Wiggins (after Smith had decommited) later in the fall and then Edwards and Thabeet in the spring.

Fair enough - my memory got clouded and I mis-remembered the timeline. I recalled JM committing early while we were still desperate for reinforcements, but was wrong on exactly when. But I think my larger point is still perfectly accurate. We had 10 schollies to give (figuring Boone-Gay-Williams would leave, which most expected). Thabeet wasn't on our radar at that point (nor Edwards) and we needed bodies. Our bigs were Adrien and a freshman Kelly coming in, both of whom were 4s.

We didn't want to wind up with no 5s at all, so we reached on a guy who we probably hoped we could recruit over later - knowing we needed both starters and backups. Hence the Mandeldove "project that didn't work out" theme deserved a caveat, since he was signed in a year we had very unusual needs in our recruiting class.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Mooch82]

Fair enough - my memory got clouded and I mis-remembered the timeline. I recalled JM committing early while we were still desperate for reinforcements, but was wrong on exactly when. But I think my larger point is still perfectly accurate. We had 10 schollies to give (figuring Boone-Gay-Williams would leave, which most expected). Thabeet wasn't on our radar at that point (nor Edwards) and we needed bodies. Our bigs were Adrien and a freshman Kelly coming in, both of whom were 4s.

We didn't want to wind up with no 5s at all, so we reached on a guy who we probably hoped we could recruit over later - knowing we needed both starters and backups. Hence the Mandeldove "project that didn't work out" theme deserved a caveat, since he was signed in a year we had very unusual needs in our recruiting class.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I hear ya. 10 schollies still seems high (we had AJP, JA, Marcus Johnson, Austrie and Garrison returning) but we used the 8 remaining ones we had. But I do understand your point about grabbing him early while we didn't have many other options on the radar.

Mandeldove was also considered a much better get than Brimah at the time. He has some solid offers and I believe was rated top 100 by at least one site.

 

[Gurleyman]

I hear ya. 10 schollies still seems high (we had AJP, JA, Marcus Johnson, Austrie and Garrison returning) but we used the 8 remaining ones we had. But I do understand your point about grabbing him early while we didn't have many other options on the radar.

Mandeldove was also considered a much better get than Brimah at the time. He has some solid offers and I believe was rated top 100 by at least one site.

Yeah - I went by the final total of who stuck around and totally forgot about MJ. In fairness, did he ever really exist? I'm not convinced.

I think Garrison was probably a rent a player we never planned to keep more than that one year (signed late in the summer after laptop gate and ended up a role player at Niagara), since he was basically a poor man's Austrie. That's largely hindsight, though - if he actually proved to be better than we thought, we may have kept him, so we might not have considered that an available schollie at the time.

 

[Kitaman]

Looks like Hobbs picked this one (KO recruited probably), those two have an eye for talent. No qualms here, good for them, great for me.

 

[TheChamps990411]

The thing is you never know. sure this kid could turn out to be a mandledove or even an ajou deng but there is also a chance this kid could turn into hasheem or mek. i dont know about any of you but to me thats the enjoyment i get out of recruits like this. i love the under the radar kids that develop over 2 or 3 years into big time players. you can have your one and dones. look at our national titles. how many of those kids that lead us to those titles were blue chip top 15 one and done caliber recruits? how many were 3 year players that developed? we`ll never recruit like uk does and we dont need too. btw hows that working out for cal this year?

1999-rip,kfree,jake,ricky and khalid.
2004-ben,mek,rash,liek,hilton and josh
2011-kemba,alex,bazz,jlamb