Amida Brimah

[HuskyBballFan]

I think a lot of us are assuming that there is more playing time available to be split amongst our big guys than there actually is. If DeAndre Daniels has the type of year we expect him to have, he's going to be playing 30-35 minutes per game at PF - just like last year. Giffey is too good of a player to be kept on the bench, so he's going to pick up some minutes at PF as well - just like last year.

We are completely set at the 1-4 spots. Napier, Boatright, Calhoun, Daniels, Giffey, Kromah, and Samuel are going to get almost 100% of the minutes at those four positions.

There's only one spot open. My guess is that Nolan and Olander get the majority of the minutes early on, with Facey earning a bigger role as the season progresses.

 

[BearJWS]

I think the chances of Brimah being ahead of Nolan on the depth chart are very, very slim.

I disagree. Nolan was behind T.O., Wolf & Giffey at depth @ Center last year. Considering how poor Center play last year was for us, that says something. He only got P.T. because Wolf was suspended and Olander & Giffey got hurt. Ollie would have played him more if he was that good. Nolan had one good game all season against Cinci. People act like his 2 pt & 6 reb games against PC & S.FL were awesome games. They were encouraging. Brimah has 2" on Nolan on height, a far longer reach, is more athletic, is a better shot blocker, rebounder & defender. I can see modest improvements in Nolan for next season, but I don't see him as ahead of Brimah. It may be a wash offensively, because neither seems to score beyond 5 feet.

 

[Scot-e]

I think the key is just having more bodies to throw in the paint- they do not have to score much next year or we will be in big trouble. With DD, SN and Boat carrying the load- we just need solid D and rebounds.

 

[mauconnfan]

I disagree. Nolan was behind T.O., Wolf & Giffey at depth @ Center last year. Considering how poor Center play last year was for us, that says something. He only got P.T. because Wolf was suspended and Olander & Giffey got hurt. Ollie would have played him more if he was that good. Nolan had one good game all season against Cinci. People act like his 2 pt & 6 reb games against PC & S.FL were awesome games. They were encouraging. Brimah has 2" on Nolan on height, a far longer reach, is more athletic, is a better shot blocker, rebounder & defender. I can see modest improvements in Nolan for next season, but I don't see him as ahead of Brimah. It may be a wash offensively, because neither seems to score beyond 5 feet.

He actually was very solid in most of his last 4-5 games with very visible improvement and confidence.........He showed he could play in a role for sure, whether he can be more than that if Wolf does not return is an unknown. Having said that Brimah is very much an unknown and we will need to see a lot more from him before we can even speculate. Tyler needs to be more consistent and get better feet to end all of his competition off at the position.

The end result is we will need all hands on deck especially if EW stays in Germany!

 

[Dogbreath2U]

I disagree. Nolan was behind T.O., Wolf & Giffey at depth @ Center last year. Considering how poor Center play last year was for us, that says something. He only got P.T. because Wolf was suspended and Olander & Giffey got hurt. Ollie would have played him more if he was that good. Nolan had one good game all season against Cinci. People act like his 2 pt & 6 reb games against PC & S.FL were awesome games. They were encouraging. Brimah has 2" on Nolan on height, a far longer reach, is more athletic, is a better shot blocker, rebounder & defender. I can see modest improvements in Nolan for next season, but I don't see him as ahead of Brimah. It may be a wash offensively, because neither seems to score beyond 5 feet.

We shall see how it plays out, but I do not see Amida being more athletic than Nolan. Nolan runs the court extremely well and also showed good lateral quickness for his size. Late in the season, he started to play with some aggression and did well at it, becoming more of a factor. He would show glimpses of very good play, followed by disappearing for a while. I could be very wrong, but I would be very surprised if Amida ran the court or moved laterally as well as Nolan.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

I disagree. Nolan was behind T.O., Wolf & Giffey at depth @ Center last year. Considering how poor Center play last year was for us, that says something. He only got P.T. because Wolf was suspended and Olander & Giffey got hurt. Ollie would have played him more if he was that good. Nolan had one good game all season against Cinci. People act like his 2 pt & 6 reb games against PC & S.FL were awesome games. They were encouraging. Brimah has 2" on Nolan on height, a far longer reach, is more athletic, is a better shot blocker, rebounder & defender. I can see modest improvements in Nolan for next season, but I don't see him as ahead of Brimah. It may be a wash offensively, because neither seems to score beyond 5 feet.

The only part of your comparison of Brimah vs Nolan that is remotely based in fact is Brimah being taller than Nolan. On what basis is Brimah a better shot blocker, rebounder, and defender? Because of some youtube clips where he blocked a lot of shots and grabbed a lot of rebounds against 6'2'' high schoolers?

 

[BearJWS]

The only part of your comparison of Brimah vs Nolan that is remotely based in fact is Brimah being taller than Nolan. On what basis is Brimah a better shot blocker, rebounder, and defender? Because of some youtube clips where he blocked a lot of shots and grabbed a lot of rebounds against 6'2'' high schoolers?

Because Brimah averaged nearly a triple double in a competitive Miami, FL league. He wasn't always playing against 6'2"kids all the time as you claim. When you have a 6'11" guy finishing 3rd in the FL state high jump, you know you have an athlete. Nolan put up 1.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg last year. I don't think Nolan showed anything impressive athletically & I'm even trying to remember if he had an actual dunk last year. I see Nolan more as following an Hilston Armstrong / Gavin Edwards path... baby steps. Brimah's going to be blocking shots right off the bat, protecting the rim better than anyone else on the team. I see Facey being similar at the PF role. Both these guys are noted high energy guys.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

Because Brimah averaged nearly a triple double in a competitive Miami, FL league. He wasn't always playing against 6'2"kids all the time as you claim. When you have a 6'11" guy finishing 3rd in the FL state high jump, you know you have an athlete. Nolan put up 1.4 ppg, 2.1 rpg last year. I don't think Nolan showed anything impressive athletically & I'm even trying to remember if he had an actual dunk last year. I see Nolan more as following an Hilston Armstrong / Gavin Edwards path... baby steps. Brimah's going to be blocking shots right off the bat, protecting the rim better than anyone else on the team. I see Facey being similar at the PF role. Both these guys are noted high energy guys.

You're going to be extremely disappointed in how skinny and raw Brimah is. When you're 7 feet tall and athletic enough to get a D1 scholarship, it's not as hard as you think to average a triple double as a high school senior. Yes, he runs like a deer. But he's going to get pushed around. Forget the games - he's going to get pushed around by his older, stronger teammates in practice.

The fact is, he's a completely under the radar recruit who did not play against great competition in high school. Forget the fact that Nolan was considered a better get from a recruiting standpoint, he has a full year of weight training and development on Brimah. He held his own against legitimate competition once Wolf left the team. We need to see Brimah do the same, even in the preseason scrimmages against D2 teams, before we can consider him ahead of Nolan on the depth chart.

Amida wasn't recruited here to solve our big man problems from day 1. This is the type of recruit who would be redshirted if we had a traditional Uconn frontcourt, with hopes of getting something out of him in the second half of his career.

 

[Mr. Wonderful]

I just hope Brimah falls in love with the dinner table and spends a lot of time in the gym. And listen to the coaches. If he does that I'd call it a successful freshman campaign.

 

[sledog]

'Nolan can probably jump a foot higher than Wolf, ...'


Did Wolf's feet actually leave the floor?????