Now that his confidence is growing his success lays in the hands of the zebras
Yeah like thats going help. Seriously, if I was KO, I'd plant that seed or a similar one with the refs that Brimah has improved his technique and has been much better with avoiding foul worthy contact and to not be too quick with their whistles against the big fellah just because he's so big and gets his hands on or alters so many shots. Maybe it will stick in the back of the officials' minds and they'll not be so quick with the whistles on Amida.
Good observations, but it often takes a while for then to get that type of respect. In Amida's case, he hasn't learned how to do #2. Too often he's going for the block shots and when he doesn't get it, he ends up out of rebounding position. He's still very young and has a lot of time to develop and learn.
Refs are a definite part of the NCAA teaching experience. As it was with those of us majoring in Undecided Studies our Freshman and Soph core courses were fraught with potential failures, while we shined through in our Junior and Senior years with straight As in basket weaving, golf and the art of feng shuiNow that he's an AAC Rookie of the Week, KO needs to tell the refs to give his star big a little respect and not call ticky-tack fouls on him.
After waching hoops for so may years I'm convinced that the refs let the better known bigs (juniors and seniors in particular) get away with fouls while they call phatom ones on the new comers especially the freshmen. I don't think it's mostly technique as to why freshman bigs pile up fouls at an alarming rate, though that is part of it. It just seems Brimah gets one or more bogus calls each game, which makes the difference from him playing just 10 to 15 minutes a given game compared to 16 to 20 plus.
I often joked in the past about some of our foul prone bigs would get whistled for a foul as they walked on to the floor before play would even begin.
Thabeet averaged 6.2 points, 6.4 rebounds and 3.8 blocks per game as a frosh. Amida is averaging 3.6, 2.4 & 2.9. I don't think those numbers support the fact that he is "far ahead of where Thabeet was".
Thabeet averaged 25 minutes, Brimah 13. Brimah is a better shot blocker, at the least.
Lubin looks like a load- you never know till they get on the court but he is going to role into UCONN around 250 lbs. We currently have no one to put on the floor to fill that role. Him and an improved AB should really change our interior D next year.
Okay - not to minimize what Thabeet meant to this program - he was largely responsible for the FF run in 09 which kept the program on top after 4 long years of subpar results - but Brimah is hugely more fun to watch as a freshman than Thabeet was.
Lubin has been putting up big time numbers. I think he's going to be a beast in the paint even at the next level at the 4. It would be nice to add another true 5, or at least a 4-5 Combo.
