Brimah leads Huskies’ bountiful batch of bigs

[HooperScooper]

Article from today's New Haven Register on Amida and the other UConn bigs.

Brimah leads Huskies’ bountiful batch of bigs

And that’s not the only area in which Ollie would like to see improvement from his 7-footer.


“I want him to not make silly fouls like he made last year, where I had to pull him out of the game in the first two minutes and have to sit him down the whole first half. I want him to eliminate some of those foolish mistakes that he did. Some of them were trying to take charges, illegal screen way out 35 feet from the basket. Get some fouls contesting shots, things like that. Just pick and choose where he gets his fouls. That happens, but I think it happened too much for him. Freshman and sophomore year, I tend to (forgive) that, but junior year, you’ve got to eliminate some of those mistakes and stay on the court. I think he’s heard that a lot from me. He’s getting really, really aggravated with me saying that, which is a good thing.”

 

[mauconnfan]

Does it scare anyone else that Steve E said he's learning "....where to be on the court, help defense and how to create my own shot.." from AB? LOL....oh crap OkaFor may yank me out of the Top 10 now dammit.

Seriously though, if this kid has a dramatic improvement sky's the limit for this team, it really is. It doesn't have to be that as we've said it could be the combination of many guys improving, but a big leap by him will make everyone else's easier.

 

[UConnTrumbull]

I really like how we've reloaded with some talented big guys to complement Amida. Borges talked about Enoch not getting a lot of playing time this season but I think he will surprise some people. At the very least, he can be aggressive and used to accumulate some fouls rather than Brimah or Miller taking them.

 

[Matt1010]

I really like how we've reloaded with some talented big guys to complement Amida. Borges talked about Enoch not getting a lot of playing time this season but I think he will surprise some people. At the very least, he can be aggressive and used to accumulate some fouls rather than Brimah or Miller taking them.

Unless he really impresses the minutes just won't be available, assuming Amida can stay out of foul trouble better. 80 minutes between PF/C and I'd really like to see Amida and SM at around 30 per game.

Amida: 30
Miller: 30
Hamilton: 5
Facey/Nolan/SE: 15 ?

Something has to give here and a couple guys are unfortunately barely going to play.

 

[mauconnfan]

Unless he really impresses the minutes just won't be available, assuming Amida can stay out of foul trouble better. 80 minutes between PF/C and I'd really like to see Amida and SM at around 30 per game.

Amida: 30
Miller: 30
Hamilton: 5
Facey/Nolan/SE: 15 ?

Something has to give here and a couple guys are unfortunately barely going to play.

Agree it will be tough for sure and I actually see Nolan's minutes a bit more than some project based on experience alone. I know Facey's dad passed away and the impact is awful I am sure but I hate not hearing anything about him. But not an easy time I am sure hope he makes it through with improvement also. If Steve sees the court due to foul trouble or injury and rebounds the ball and makes a jump shot or 2 ya never know. But for now it will be tough this year.

 

[Dogbreath2U]

Agree it will be tough for sure and I actually see Nolan's minutes a bit more than some project based on experience alone. I know Facey's dad passed away and the impact is awful I am sure but I hate not hearing anything about him. But not an easy time I am sure hope he makes it through with improvement also. If Steve sees the court due to foul trouble or injury and rebounds the ball and makes a jump shot or 2 ya never know. But for now it will be tough this year.

I also hope that Nolan's experience and hopefully being healthy will allow him to make a solid contribution when in for AB.

 

[Kitaman]

The good thing is come practice Amida will now be challenged (think Miller) and not look like Jabbar, producing false hopes/results. For 3 years he only had Tyler, Facey, Rock and so on, to measure/hone his skills. Therefore I have to believe we will see improvement.

 

[mauconnfan]

The good thing is come practice Amida will now be challenged (think Miller) and not look like Jabbar, producing false hopes/results. For 3 years he only had Tyler, Facey, Rock and so on, to measure hone his skills. Therefore I have to believe we will see improvement.

You forget he's only 82 mau inches at best so he was not dwarfing them like Kareem

But yes he will be challenged, hopefully has been challenged in the summer too. I'm guessing some of those 6'6 tough kids wanted to get a piece of him and made nothing easy for him the Hartford league.

 

[CallMeBruce]

This lumping together of Brimah's freshman and sophomore seasons belies how much better he got at avoiding fouls in that time. His foul rate per40 dropped by nearly 40%, and as a result, he played about 270 more minutes while committing 17 fewer fouls last year than the prior year. In other words, he was able to play an extra 10mpg (going from about 16mpg to 26mpg) while actually committing slightly fewer fouls each game. Yes, he still struggled with elite post players, but if he improves anywhere near that much this season, he'll be a 30mpg player easily.

Another thing I'll be intrigued to see is how his rebounding rate changes. Before last season, I did a per-possession comparison between Brimah and Thabeet, given their similar profiles (experience, skill set, age, size). Like Thabeet, Brimah actually saw a slight decrease in his rebounding rate from his freshman to sophomore year. From sophomore to junior year, Thabeet saw a huge jump in his rebounding rate (just over 33%), which hopefully happens for Brimah, as well. Brimah's baseline for rebounding is much lower, but a similar jump for him, particularly if it came with a corresponding increase in playing time (resulting from being able to better avoid silly fouls), would put Brimah around 7rpg. That's not superstar material, but it's a good number for a guy who came in struggling as a rebounder. It's probably also not likely, given that Hamilton and Miller are both exceptional rebounders, which will hinder Brimah's ability to rack up big totals there, but here's hoping anyway.

 

[HooperScooper]

Another article from the Courant.

http://www.courant.com/sports/basketball/hc-hartford-pro-am-0811-20150810-story.html

 

[intlzncster]

Unless he really impresses the minutes just won't be available,

Agree it will be tough for sure and I actually see Nolan's minutes a bit more than some project based on experience alone.

I think this is good for Enoch. We know he's a bit raw at this point, but blessed with the tools/foundation to become a player. Let the kid be an understudy and get his feet wet. Never a bad thing for a kid.

 

[SubbaBub]

Unless he suddenly figured out how to rebound, you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment. AB needs to be the #3 guy, if he's #1 then we're sunk.

I have no idea is Miller can board at this level or if Gibbs can be the scorer he was at the Hall. Being the man on a mediocre team doesn't always translate up in class.

It has to be Pervis' team.

 

[aceboon]

Unless he suddenly figured out how to rebound, you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment. AB needs to be the #3 guy, if he's #1 then we're sunk.

I have no idea is Miller can board at this level or if Gibbs can be the scorer he was at the Hall. Being the man on a mediocre team doesn't always translate up in class.

It has to be Pervis' team.

Who has said Brimah needs to be "the guy" on this team? As for Purvis(at least spell it right), I'm not sure about saying it should be his team when he really only does one thing and hasn't done it consistently yet. Gibbs has proven more than him the last 2 years in a good conference.

 

[James]

Unless he suddenly figured out how to rebound, you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment. AB needs to be the #3 guy, if he's #1 then we're sunk.

I have no idea is Miller can board at this level or if Gibbs can be the scorer he was at the Hall. Being the man on a mediocre team doesn't always translate up in class.

It has to be Pervis' team.

lmao. Brimah averaging 13/7rbs/4 blocks per game cant be the best player? (thats a modest jump). Are you even aware he was an all conference player last year, him and hamilton are the most accomplished players on this team. also its called "basketball" not "reboundball", AB is proficient at running screen n rolls and finishes at an extremely high clip at the rim. He is also the best rim protector in the country.

edit: maybe you meant 'leading scorer'? Then I would agree brimah should be third. Not overall impact on the floor though. Gibbs should lead the team in scoring and hamilton should be second.

 

[Matt1010]

Unless he suddenly figured out how to rebound, you guys are setting yourselves up for disappointment. AB needs to be the #3 guy, if he's #1 then we're sunk.

I have no idea is Miller can board at this level or if Gibbs can be the scorer he was at the Hall. Being the man on a mediocre team doesn't always translate up in class.

It has to be Pervis' team.

Seton Hall was a mediocre team but they played in a great league and Gibbs has more than proven he can produce against top level talent.

 

[Danzz]

We need to improve our perimeter defense so Brimah isn't put in a position where he tries to draw charges or go for the block.. Some of the foul problems are on Brimah but some of it is on the perimeter defenders. It is the same old story: Brimah has to make better decisions on when to go for the block and when to stay home. If he can do that he'll rebound better instead of giving up uncontested weak side rebounds.

 

[OkaForPrez]

@mauconnfan out. @CallMeBruce in.

 

[SubbaBub]

Seton Hall was a mediocre team but they played in a great league and Gibbs has more than proven he can produce against top level talent.

"Great"?

If you take most of the shots you will score most of the points. True talent is being efficient. He's clearly better than a Juco coming in, but he's not coming in as an All American either. Ed Nelson was the ACC rookie of the year and became a role player here.

 

[SubbaBub]

lmao. Brimah averaging 13/7rbs/4 blocks per game cant be the best player? (thats a modest jump). Are you even aware he was an all conference player last year, him and hamilton are the most accomplished players on this team. also its called "basketball" not "reboundball", AB is proficient at running screen n rolls and finishes at an extremely high clip at the rim. He is also the best rim protector in the country.

edit: maybe you meant 'leading scorer'? Then I would agree brimah should be third. Not overall impact on the floor though. Gibbs should lead the team in scoring and hamilton should be second.

There are rebounds you pick up off the floor and there are rebounds you get that the other guys should have taken. AB took too many of the former and not enough of the latter.

In any event 7 rebs for a 7 foot center is pathetic. Take out the ones vs Fordhams of the world and it's a lot less. I want rebounds that change games, not pad stats.

The bigs were a huge weakness last year now we add a transfer and a freshman and we're good? That Kool aid isn't ready for consumption quite yet.

 

[CallMeBruce]

"Great"?

If you take most of the shots you will score most of the points. True talent is being efficient. He's clearly better than a Juco coming in, but he's not coming in as an All American either. Ed Nelson was the ACC rookie of the year and became a role player here.

Did you even look at Gibbs' numbers from last year? His effective FG% was higher than Boatright's, he had an ORtg of 118, and he hit 44% of his three-pointers (taking 6/game). Is that not efficient enough for you?

 

[JimHurley]

Enoch will not see much time as a freshman. Brimah should see 25-30 minutes, Miller around 25, Facey roughly 20, and Nolan maybe 10. Not sure if anyone agrees with me but if AB has improved as much as everyone says he has, this could very well be his last season in Storrs. Let's enjoy it.

 

[James]

There are rebounds you pick up off the floor and there are rebounds you get that the other guys should have taken. AB took too many of the former and not enough of the latter.

In any event 7 rebs for a 7 foot center is pathetic. Take out the ones vs Fordhams of the world and it's a lot less. I want rebounds that change games, not pad stats.

The bigs were a huge weakness last year now we add a transfer and a freshman and we're good? That Kool aid isn't ready for consumption quite yet.

So its your contention that rebounding was a weakness last season? wrong again and you clearly haven't looked at any numbers. we ranked as one of the top 4 rebounding teams in conference play (below average offensive rebounding, but 3rd in every other team rebounding metric). You dont think adding one of the best rebounders from the ivy league as a starter boosts that up even more? please , harping on rebounding like our inept offense wasn't more egregious is useless exercise.

 

[HuskyBballFan]

"Great"?

If you take most of the shots you will score most of the points. True talent is being efficient. He's clearly better than a Juco coming in, but he's not coming in as an All American either. Ed Nelson was the ACC rookie of the year and became a role player here.

I'm guessing you've never seen him play.

 

[mauconnfan]

This lumping together of Brimah's freshman and sophomore seasons belies how much better he got at avoiding fouls in that time. His foul rate per40 dropped by nearly 40%, and as a result, he played about 270 more minutes while committing 17 fewer fouls last year than the prior year. In other words, he was able to play an extra 10mpg (going from about 16mpg to 26mpg) while actually committing slightly fewer fouls each game. Yes, he still struggled with elite post players, but if he improves anywhere near that much this season, he'll be a 30mpg player easily.

Another thing I'll be intrigued to see is how his rebounding rate changes. Before last season, I did a per-possession comparison between Brimah and Thabeet, given their similar profiles (experience, skill set, age, size). Like Thabeet, Brimah actually saw a slight decrease in his rebounding rate from his freshman to sophomore year. From sophomore to junior year, Thabeet saw a huge jump in his rebounding rate (just over 33%), which hopefully happens for Brimah, as well. Brimah's baseline for rebounding is much lower, but a similar jump for him, particularly if it came with a corresponding increase in playing time (resulting from being able to better avoid silly fouls), would put Brimah around 7rpg. That's not superstar material, but it's a good number for a guy who came in struggling as a rebounder. It's probably also not likely, given that Hamilton and Miller are both exceptional rebounders, which will hinder Brimah's ability to rack up big totals there, but here's hoping anyway.

I think some are missing the point here. Yes he was better at not fouling out no doubt. But was he better at not getting into fast foul trouble therefore eliminating minutes played in many big games? The answer to that is no. And that's more important than only having four fouls when the buzzer sounds. Agree, he's better and the minutes show that but the big games, where he was asked and pleaded to be smart were not very good. That needs to change.

Here comes OkForPrez

 

[mauconnfan]

Enoch will not see much time as a freshman. Brimah should see 25-30 minutes, Miller around 25, Facey roughly 20, and Nolan maybe 10. Not sure if anyone agrees with me but if AB has improved as much as everyone says he has, this could very well be his last season in Storrs. Let's enjoy it.

Not sure how Facey sees 20 unless something amazing happened. Miller will be closer to 30 based on his ability to play defense and rebound the ball. We need more basketball smarts on the court and he does bring that. Not at all saying KF or anyone else isn't intelligent there's just a difference on the court.