Brimah

[Jimdish255]

He's too nice to be a dominant post player. That goes above and beyond his lack of instincts. I'm sure he tries hard and is a great teammate, but Enoch has to get as much time as fouls permit. And Enoch doesn't need to get a lot stronger at this point, just improve his explosive fitness level a bit.

 

[UConnDan97]

I love the ridiculous yet predictable meltdowns on the Boneyard. And from the same predictable posters.

Brimah is a good yet inconsistent center who is capable of having a game-changing night. He is also capable of having a bad night. That's what defines him as "good yet inconsistent". I've seen games where substituting him would not have changed the outcome negatively (last night), and I've seen games where we literally could not go another minute without him (Memphis).

But this board is filled with a bunch of posters who not only allow zero room for failure from a bunch of 20-year old kids, but also are very much spoiled in the success that they have been allowed to enjoy up to this point in their athletic fandom lives as Husky fans. There is no perspective, because they have never had to obtain any. How quickly we forget that without this kid, we would not have won a national title in 2014...

 

[Pudge]

I am back in my little corner again.

We actually can play well with Brimah as our center. I have seen it ... and seen the difference with when he is not on the floor. For all his deficiencies - and they are abundant, that kid can raise the energy level of the other 4 and really that is our best 5 most nights.

What did you think of Meyer on Houston? (OT) at 6-10 240 he is a tinge under where Jake Voskuhl was and has little of the athleticism we have seen from the many rim protectors we love to talk about - which probably means we wouldn't take Meyer - but I loved his game.

 

[CTBasketball]

I'm content with Brimah being what he is. I get it.

But the one thing that still drives me nuts is that when he grabs a defensive rebound, he never looks up to outlet the ball to start a fast break. Drives me up walls.

 

[husky429]

Do you think his hands are fine and he really doesn't need to improve them? Or do you think that's a weakness of his and improving his hands would help his game? Just wondering if you think it's not a problem.

Obviously I have no idea what players do to improve their skills. I'm sure they are all doing something. But have you ever read anything that was specifically done with Brimah to improve his hands, which I consider to be a huge roadblock to him getting better? I just remember reading that about Thabeet and thought it was interesting that he was doing something kind of strange to specifically address a weakness in his game. I believe that all players can do specific drills or training to improve their deficiencies. These guys are all relatively to very athletic or else they wouldn't be playing D1 college basketball so they all have the capability to improve. Maybe Brimah has been doing training to improve his hands. Let me know if you know what he has done. I'm just amazed he hasn't improved more in his 4 years at UConn. Not sure if he's just not capable of improving or if he hasn't worked at it enough.

There was a short factoid about thabeet and his hands years ago. You need to realize these quotes are from 20 year olds having conversations with journalists for a few minutes tops, at a time.

It's just a random nugget of info. Thabeet did sand work, and a lot of other work, to improve his hands.

It's unclear to me why you would think an accomplished (albeit flawed) coach, would not work on a players hands. EVERY player works on hand strength.

Brimahs lack of rebounding ability is due to strength and instinct, same with his hands. It's not something he's going to change on this point.

Kevin Ollie doesn't need p prove to you or anyone else that he is doing hand, catching, passing drills and training with brimah. If you think it's a good idea, imagine what a real basketball coach is noticing when reviewing game film.

Again, most of what happens in training is not put in an article. Most of what you read in articles isn't remembered years later. Ollie doesn't need to say they're doing hand strength training. Only a buffoon wouldn't.

 

[yukonyc212]

I just thank god the Brimah era is winding down. I'll always be greatful for his season saving and1 in 14, but that's pretty much been it for him in the highlight department in 4 years. It's frightening that 2 of our 3 seniors are exactly the same player they were when they stepped foot on campus for the first time. I just hope that isn't the norm going forward for player development or else we are screwed.

 

[Huskyforlife]

I love the ridiculous yet predictable meltdowns on the Boneyard. And from the same predictable posters.

Brimah is a good yet inconsistent center who is capable of having a game-changing night. He is also capable of having a bad night. That's what defines him as "good yet inconsistent".

So a center who can't score, rebound, play good defense consistently, is always in foul trouble, or catch any pass that isn't gift wrapped for him is good in your world? Also, do you understand what makes a player labeled as "good?" You're a good player if you consistently perform at a high level, so saying he's "good but inconsistent" is basically saying he's not good. Please enlighten me on what makes him good.

 

[chiller99.5]

Odds of a high school athlete playing College Basketball * Men Women
Number of US High School Basketball players 541,479 429,504
Number of US College Basketball Players (See table above) 32,735 27,951
% of foreign students playing NCAA Basketball * 6.1% 4.4%
% of US High School Players competing at any College level 5.7% 6.2%
% of US High School Players competing at NCAA I Schools 1.0% 1.1%

 

[JSM1970]

Good? No way. Can he have a decent game here and there against bad front courts -- yes.

It's all been said but his lack of strength and complete lack of any basketball principles is too much for him to overcome.

I'm sure he'll play somewhere overseas.

Brimah is a good yet inconsistent center who is capable of having a game-changing night. He is also capable of having a bad night. That's what defines him as "good yet inconsistent". I've seen games where substituting him would not have changed the outcome negatively (last night), and I've seen games where we literally could not go another minute without him (Memphis).

But this board is filled with a bunch of posters who not only allow zero room for failure from a bunch of 20-year old kids, but also are very much spoiled in the success that they have been allowed to enjoy up to this point in their athletic fandom lives as Husky fans. There is no perspective, because they have never had to obtain any. How quickly we forget that without this kid, we would not have won a national title in 2014...

 

[UConnDan97]

So a center who can't score, rebound, play good defense consistently, is always in foul trouble, or catch any pass that isn't gift wrapped for him is good in your world? Also, do you understand what makes a player labeled as "good?" You're a good player if you consistently perform at a high level, so saying he's "good but inconsistent" is basically saying he's not good. Please enlighten me on what makes him good.

Do we win the Memphis game without him? Do we win both the UCF games without him? Those questions are rhetorical, since we already know the answer. As well as the fact that there were other wins during the year that we just could not have without him.

If we didn't need him, then nobody on the board would complain when he gets into foul trouble after 10 minutes into the game. The reason that we all complain is because we all know that we DO need him on the court. Some of us are just more willing to admit it than others, I guess...

 

[UConnDan97]

Good? No way. Can he have a decent game here and there against bad front courts -- yes.

It's all been said but his lack of strength and complete lack of any basketball principles is too much for him to overcome.

I'm sure he'll play somewhere overseas.

So he'll play professionally somewhere overseas for money....but there's "no way" that he's good. Got it. Thanks for the insight...

 

[HooperScooper]

There was a short factoid about thabeet and his hands years ago. You need to realize these quotes are from 20 year olds having conversations with journalists for a few minutes tops, at a time.

It's just a random nugget of info. Thabeet did sand work, and a lot of other work, to improve his hands.

It's unclear to me why you would think an accomplished (albeit flawed) coach, would not work on a players hands. EVERY player works on hand strength.

Brimahs lack of rebounding ability is due to strength and instinct, same with his hands. It's not something he's going to change on this point.

Kevin Ollie doesn't need p prove to you or anyone else that he is doing hand, catching, passing drills and training with brimah. If you think it's a good idea, imagine what a real basketball coach is noticing when reviewing game film.

Again, most of what happens in training is not put in an article. Most of what you read in articles isn't remembered years later. Ollie doesn't need to say they're doing hand strength training. Only a buffoon wouldn't.

All makes sense to me. I was just asking if Brimah put in the work to improve his hands. If he did it didn't work. I guess my question then would be what did he do and why didn't it work? I'll ask him him what he did when I see him.

 

[JSM1970]

Phil Nolan plays overseas. Is he good?

So he'll play professionally somewhere overseas for money....but there's "no way" that he's good. Got it. Thanks for the insight...

 

[mauconnfan]

Nobody is a bigger AB booster on this board than me, but last nite AB was terrible. He looked lost on both sides of the court. I don't care about his lack of offensive production, he had very little impact on the defensive side either. Rebounds were going by his head and he was standing there looking like a kid at a carnival. We can't win when he plays like that and I'm amazed we were within 5 with a minute to go. On the other hand everyone else was pretty terrible too, especially in the second half. Jackson made his shots but a lot of Dotsun's 25 came at his expense. Jalen, Kenton and Purvis had mediocre games, CV gave us nothing (which seems to always happen when Vance gives us something and vice versa) and while Enoch had the best half of his 2 year career in the first half, in the second half it looked like he'd never seen a basketball before. Mostly they looked like a tired team on the road, very slow to the ball, and again I'm amazed they kept it close before KO's meltdown.

Bingo - not sure how he had 8 boards but he didn't get any big ones and he was in position to ge a few of them.

I like the tired team assessment - like it or not it's reality. Didn't win many if any 50-50's and dotson kills us - happy for him to leave.

 

[mauconnfan]

He's saying.all these people that bash our players (that do more for our university than anyone here on this website) behind a screen name on a message board wouldn't have the guts to say it to their face. It's not some moral high ground.....it's the truth.

No what he's saying is Brimah is a good kid and no need to say you are anxious to see him leave, he's still a Husky. Quite honestly he agreed with everything else which he should.

 

[UConnDan97]

Phil Nolan plays overseas. Is he good?

Yes. He is...

 

[Huskyforlife]

St

Do we win the Memphis game without him? Do we win both the UCF games without him? Those questions are rhetorical, since we already know the answer. As well as the fact that there were other wins during the year that we just could not have without him.

If we didn't need him, then nobody on the board would complain when he gets into foul trouble after 10 minutes into the game. The reason that we all complain is because we all know that we DO need him on the court. Some of us are just more willing to admit it than others, I guess...

Still waiting for what makes him good. Asking questions that you and I cannot answer is not supporting your point. Maybe we lose those games, maybe we win? Who knows.

We're complaining because he's been the starting center for four years and makes the same exact mistakes. We complain because of his minimal improvement. We complain because of the pedestal guys like you put him on.

He seems like a great kid, passionate and clearly loves his university. I'll thank him for his services on the way out. But he was never a starting caliber player for a team with our expectations. There's nothing wrong with that fact.

 

[gtcam]

I'm content with Brimah being what he is. I get it.

But the one thing that still drives me nuts is that when he grabs a defensive rebound, he never looks up to outlet the ball to start a fast break. Drives me up walls.

That's because he is amazed he grabbed a ball

 

[huskyrob1]

4 and 8 for him is normally fine but last night he had potentially his worst game ever. I mean how many times can you catch the ball 4 feet from the basket and have no clue what to do with it? Miss a bounce pass you can dunk, get a loss ball and travel while stepping out of bounds, foul people with reach ins with no reason to do so, have people walk by you without defending. He made so many terrible plays last night you wouldn't have enough time to list them. What really perturbs me is he got 24 minutes, more than he deserved. He was absolutely lost on the court.

"have people walk right by you without defending".... Gray did just that with 2 or 3 minutes left. Drove down the court to the right of the basket, went around Brimah like he wasn't even there and went up for the score.

 

[huskyrob1]

Do we win the Memphis game without him? Do we win both the UCF games without him? Those questions are rhetorical, since we already know the answer. As well as the fact that there were other wins during the year that we just could not have without him.

If we didn't need him, then nobody on the board would complain when he gets into foul trouble after 10 minutes into the game. The reason that we all complain is because we all know that we DO need him on the court. Some of us are just more willing to admit it than others, I guess...

He's definitely a value to the team, but IMO he is not a starter this year. Our best 5 are Jalen, Purvis, Enoch, Facey, and Vital or Jackson. He's first or second off the bench or maybe 3rd behind Durham in certain situations. The coaching staff is at fault here on a couple levels

 

[huskyrob1]

I am back in my little corner again.

We actually can play well with Brimah as our center. I have seen it ... and seen the difference with when he is not on the floor. For all his deficiencies - and they are abundant, that kid can raise the energy level of the other 4 and really that is our best 5 most nights.

What did you think of Meyer on Houston? (OT) at 6-10 240 he is a tinge under where Jake Voskuhl was and has little of the athleticism we have seen from the many rim protectors we love to talk about - which probably means we wouldn't take Meyer - but I loved his game.

He pushed Brimah around all night. It's one of the reason's we lost, got to the ball before Brimah could even react, always had much better position under the basket than Brimah did. Brimah did not have a clue on how to handle him.

 

[husky429]

All makes sense to me. I was just asking if Brimah put in the work to improve his hands. If he did it didn't work. I guess my question then would be what did he do and why didn't it work? I'll ask him him what he did when I see him.

Yeah, my bad. I was taking out my frustrating on the OP at you. You're not insulting the kid, just asking.

It's honestly possible he just doesn't see his future as a long-term professional basketball player. He seems like the kind of guy who would go home to start a hoops program for kids in Ghana, or something, who knows. Maybe that's why we see the lack of development? Or it could be natural: he could lack the coordination and just not really have it to get it.

 

[UConnDan97]

He's definitely a value to the team, but IMO he is not a starter this year. Our best 5 are Jalen, Purvis, Enoch, Facey, and Vital or Jackson. He's first or second off the bench or maybe 3rd behind Durham in certain situations. The coaching staff is at fault here on a couple levels

...until Enoch has a bad outing, and then you'll say "what the hell was the staff thinking!" This happens all the time on this board from the same posters.

Here's the funny thing; everyone seems to agree that Enoch played a great 16 minutes yesterday. He had 1 rebound. ONE. Brimah had 8 rebounds during 24 minutes in what most people agree was a tough outing for him. But everyone is clamoring that the guy with 1 rebound was the answer to winning last night. The best part was when one poster on a thread said (paraphrase), "yeah, but they weren't important rebounds."

This is primarily because many on the Boneyard see the game that they wish to see, and not the game that happened...

 

[Dove]

When the team departed Texas was Amida on the plane?

 

[huskyrob1]

...until Enoch has a bad outing, and then you'll say "what the hell was the staff thinking!" This happens all the time on this board from the same posters.

Here's the funny thing; everyone seems to agree that Enoch played a great 16 minutes yesterday. He had 1 rebound. ONE. Brimah had 8 rebounds during 24 minutes in what most people agree was a tough outing for him. But everyone is clamoring that the guy with 1 rebound was the answer to winning last night. The best part was when one poster on a thread said (paraphrase), "yeah, but they weren't important rebounds."

This is primarily because many on the Boneyard see the game that they wish to see, and not the game that happened...

Yeah, whatever Dan. I know, everyone's a coach.

 

[jayteeman]

Mixed emotions for this lovable giant. There is a always a comfort level having a swatter in the paint for excitement and we will miss that. A starter he was just not meant to be.....and a swatting he provided as a husky.
IMO, the greatest, most exciting swatter that ever donned a Husky shirt was not a giant.....but an incredible athlete who viciously stalked those who thought they had that easy breakway layup.....man, you could just feel the intensity of Scott Burrell.

 

[Onions]

St

Still waiting for what makes him good. Asking questions that you and I cannot answer is not supporting your point. Maybe we lose those games, maybe we win? Who knows.

We're complaining because he's been the starting center for four years and makes the same exact mistakes. We complain because of his minimal improvement. We complain because of the pedestal guys like you put him on.

He seems like a great kid, passionate and clearly loves his university. I'll thank him for his services on the way out. But he was never a starting caliber player for a team with our expectations. There's nothing wrong with that fact.

What makes him good is the ability to totally dominate a game on the defensive side. He doesn't reach this level often, maybe 4 or 5 games a year, but that is his ceiling. For the majority of the games he is a plus player, more good than bad, high percentage scorer when he touches the ball on the offensive side, which isn't often, great shot blocker and rim protector on the defensive side when he isn't in foul trouble. There were a bunch of games where he was awful, but then that's true for everyone on this team, Adams included. There have been very few games this year when the opponent's center outplayed him, but that says as much about the AAC as it does about AB. There is no better option on this team at this point; blame the coaching staff for that, Amida didn't create the roster. If you think paying Enoch over AB at this point in time would have created more wins for this team, then we are not watching the same games.

 

[huskyniner]

Phil Nolan plays overseas. Is he good?

 

[yukonyc212]

Do we win the Memphis game without him? Do we win both the UCF games without him? Those questions are rhetorical, since we already know the answer. As well as the fact that there were other wins during the year that we just could not have without him.

If we didn't need him, then nobody on the board would complain when he gets into foul trouble after 10 minutes into the game. The reason that we all complain is because we all know that we DO need him on the court. Some of us are just more willing to admit it than others, I guess...

I couldn't disagree more. This season is a lost cause. About 10 games ago Brimah should have been glued to the bench the entire game so we could get Enoch 30 min of burn per night.

Also to your point about the games we won because of him.... I think the bigger question is how many games were lost "because of him." I would venture to guess that he contributed to far more losses than victories this season. In a season where we desperately needed him to step up. I'll just look at the non blowout losses. Houston 24 min 3 fouls 4 points 8 rebounds. Georgetown 6 min 5 fouls 3 points 3 rebounds. Auburn 27 min 3 fouls 6 points 2 rebounds. Ohio St 18 min 5 fouls 8 points 6 rebounds. Tulsa 37 min 3 fouls 8 points 9 rebounds. Oregon 26 min 3 fouls 11 points 5 rebounds. Oklahoma St 22 min 4 fouls 4 points 6 rebounds. North Eastern 26 min 3 fouls 5 points 7 rebounds. Wagner 26 min 4 fouls 4 points 5 rebounds. In looking over the box scores of all of these games if Brimah has a decent game and is grabbing boards like he did against Memphis we have a shot, but that has been an outlier this year, not the norm. If he has his usual game of 25 min 4 fouls 6 points and 5 rebounds we lose to any halfway decent team. Several things pop out here that everyone here already knows. He's a fouls machine that can't stay on the court, can't grab rebounds and can't score??? Outside of an occasional highlight reel block, I'd much rather see Enoch in there the entire game at this point.

 

[UConnDan97]

I couldn't disagree more. This season is a lost cause. About 10 games ago Brimah should have been glued to the bench the entire game so we could get Enoch 30 min of burn per night.

Also to your point about the games we won because of him.... I think the bigger question is how many games were lost "because of him." I would venture to guess that he contributed to far more losses than victories this season. In a season where we desperately needed him to step up. I'll just look at the non blowout losses. Houston 24 min 3 fouls 4 points 8 rebounds. Georgetown 6 min 5 fouls 3 points 3 rebounds. Auburn 27 min 3 fouls 6 points 2 rebounds. Ohio St 18 min 5 fouls 8 points 6 rebounds. Tulsa 37 min 3 fouls 8 points 9 rebounds. Oregon 26 min 3 fouls 11 points 5 rebounds. Oklahoma St 22 min 4 fouls 4 points 6 rebounds. North Eastern 26 min 3 fouls 5 points 7 rebounds. Wagner 26 min 4 fouls 4 points 5 rebounds. In looking over the box scores of all of these games if Brimah has a decent game and is grabbing boards like he did against Memphis we have a shot, but that has been an outlier this year, not the norm. If he has his usual game of 25 min 4 fouls 6 points and 5 rebounds we lose to any halfway decent team. Several things pop out here that everyone here already knows. He's a fouls machine that can't stay on the court, can't grab rebounds and can't score??? Outside of an occasional highlight reel block, I'd much rather see Enoch in there the entire game at this point.

Your post is the perfect example of what I've been talking about.

Ranting about how many fouls he picked up which removed him from games where he could have made a difference, and at the same time, saying that he doesn't make a difference. Great stuff. So which is it? Is he worthless? Or is he not on the court enough because of foul trouble?

You can't have it both ways. If he sucks, why would you care that he's on the court less?? Yeah, I know...