Chief's less than brief Brimah Vivisection

[BigErnMcCracken]

To the fans out there , I will do the best I can to respond to your questions as soon as I can.
Why review aspects of a disappointing season? That's how you can learn and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Are personnel changes necessary? Generally, in business if an organization fails to make target - one makes adjustment and staff changes.

This is sad.

 

[gtcam]

Brimah was a project - pure and simple
He whetted many an appetite with some good things during his freshman year when he had a very good team surrounding him.
When it came to him being one of the "contributors", his short comings really appeared
Granted it didn't help that he had some injuries.
However, not claiming to be an insider, I don't think the kid had enough basketball IQ to process most of the things kids his age should already know and I feel he could not apply many of the skill sets he was being taught. I am in no way saying AB is not smart but he just isn't basketball smart. Maybe in practice he showed he could do some of it but either froze or just couldn't translate it in real game situations.
On a light side - I sure hope the guy was not a soccer goalie - but maybe he was thus its now basketball
As some have said, on to the next guy, but, I personally feel that AB was the most frustrating and the one UConn player who could have made a huge difference and fizzled more as time went on.
I hope he succeeds in whatever he pursues in life - he was always a great team rep.

 

[gtcam]

To the fans out there , I will do the best I can to respond to your questions as soon as I can.
Why review aspects of a disappointing season? That's how you can learn and avoid repeating the same mistakes. Are personnel changes necessary? Generally, in business if an organization fails to make target - one makes adjustment and staff changes.

Sorry Professor Chiefoo but I really need to see your credentials
But you can scream to high heaven but Miller ain't going anywhere until he wants a change

 

[jibsey]

Chief,
I am asking you a question right now. Why can't we recruit players like the ones I am watching on Middle Tennessee State? Their basketball center can't be nicer than ours.

 

[huskymagic]

Chief coaching has definitely been a problem with this team, but its not Miller, but Ollie who you should be looking to. If Brimah is your biggest complaint, what does that say about the fact that 2 top 80 recruits in Facey and Enoch have actually been worse than Brimah a sub 200 recruit. By this logic, Miller and Ollie should be hammered for not developing properly supposedly talented players "unlike" Brimah who was "unreachable" according to our experts.

Another overlooked thing in the anti Miller and Travis diatribe is confidence. Our big men lately all seem to lack any assertiveness, confidence, or swagger on the court. Not a strength and conditioning problem as Brimah is plenty strong and athletic enough for his size. They play timid and tentative and like they have no sense of understanding where to be and what to do both defensively and offensively. Like it or not Brimah has been our best big man since 2014.

Every team in America including Calipari would love to have a Brimah on their team. The big problem is coaching, developing players, utilizing them correctly, and recruiting over them if need be. How Brimah has not been developed into an NBA first round pick in 4 years is a tragicomedy.

PS: It's the head coach who chooses a system to implement and for Ollie it has been small ball and neglecting the bigs. Calhoun was the exact opposite of this where he sought a balance between the two.

 

[boog204]

PS: It's the head coach who chooses a system to implement and for Ollie it has been small ball and neglecting the bigs. Calhoun was the exact opposite of this where he sought a balance between the two.

Huh? It wasn't until Emeka's sophomore and junior year that we really went inside with any regularity. Before that we were Wing U. Sure, Sellers got some touches and Donyell too, but we were always a baseline double screen for a wing coming off a curl team. That's part of the reason our half court offense was an achilles heel for so many years and the book on us was to prevent our transition and watch us stagnate. See Florida 94 and Miss St. 96 for excellent examples of this in action.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

This season. Add the wins and loses and you get the total number of games.

And if any of these 15 were on the first or second possession, or off offensive rebounds, or after 3 or 4 empty trips, these first buckets would actually be examples of success.

Point is, this statistic is meaningless unless you have evidence that they went to Brimah, repeatedly, until they got that first hoop.

 

[Chief00]

Chief,
I am asking you a question right now. Why can't we recruit players like the ones I am watching on Middle Tennessee State? Their basketball center can't be nicer than ours.

In recent years, Warde differentiated himself from Hathaway by improving the APR. Unfortunately, that was our top priority, so we did not benefit in recruiting as much as we should have from the 2009 and 2014 Championships. Some of that was NCAA sanctions and some was self imposed constraints. Another factor was not really having a recruiting guru. I also think lacking a credible Bigs Coach and S&C Coach hurt.

 

[Chief00]

And if any of these 15 were on the first or second possession, or off offensive rebounds, or after 3 or 4 empty trips, these first buckets would actually be examples of success.

Point is, this statistic is meaningless unless you have evidence that they went to Brimah, repeatedly, until they got that first hoop.

He had 20% of our offensive rebounds or 67/336. Since we essentially played a 6-8 man rotation - the average player had 48 offensive rebounds. So I don't think that was much of a factor in terms of scoring our first basket. Granted I am not going to completely relive the season and go to the tape.Miller and KO also emphasized many times that was our strategy - going inside - taking less threes.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

He had 20% of our offensive rebounds or 67/336. Since we essentially played a 6-8 man rotation - the average player had 48 offensive rebounds.

Think about this for a second, basketball genius.

 

[Doctor Hoop]

...Granted I am not going to completely relive the season and go to the tape.

Ditto.

 

[Chief00]

Chief coaching has definitely been a problem with this team, but its not Miller, but Ollie who you should be looking to. If Brimah is your biggest complaint, what does that say about the fact that 2 top 80 recruits in Facey and Enoch have actually been worse than Brimah a sub 200 recruit. By this logic, Miller and Ollie should be hammered for not developing properly supposedly talented players "unlike" Brimah who was "unreachable" according to our experts.

Another overlooked thing in the anti Miller and Travis diatribe is confidence. Our big men lately all seem to lack any assertiveness, confidence, or swagger on the court. Not a strength and conditioning problem as Brimah is plenty strong and athletic enough for his size. They play timid and tentative and like they have no sense of understanding where to be and what to do both defensively and offensively. Like it or not Brimah has been our best big man since 2014.

Every team in America including Calipari would love to have a Brimah on their team. The big problem is coaching, developing players, utilizing them correctly, and recruiting over them if need be. How Brimah has not been developed into an NBA first round pick in 4 years is a tragicomedy.

PS: It's the head coach who chooses a system to implement and for Ollie it has been small ball and neglecting the bigs. Calhoun was the exact opposite of this where he sought a balance between the two.

Quite frankly, I can't agree that the guy that I have seen thrown around like a rag doll for 4 years is "plenty strong". I can't remember a guy spending more time on the floor - and it was from being knocked down or falling over himself not usually aggressively diving into a crowd for a loose ball.

 

[Chief00]

Think about this for a second, basketball genius.

I would expect a starting Center to have more than the average amount of offensive rebounds; just like I would expect a guard to have more assists or 3 point FGs. But when you spread his rebounds over 30 games he average only 1 more offensive rebound than average spread over potentially a 40 minutes game. So offensive rebounds converted into points is unlikely why he scored our first basket half the time. More likely it was by design and the coaches often said that going inside was their plan.

 

[Chief00]

Brimah was a project - pure and simple
He whetted many an appetite with some good things during his freshman year when he had a very good team surrounding him.
When it came to him being one of the "contributors", his short comings really appeared
Granted it didn't help that he had some injuries.
However, not claiming to be an insider, I don't think the kid had enough basketball IQ to process most of the things kids his age should already know and I feel he could not apply many of the skill sets he was being taught. I am in no way saying AB is not smart but he just isn't basketball smart. Maybe in practice he showed he could do some of it but either froze or just couldn't translate it in real game situations.
On a light side - I sure hope the guy was not a soccer goalie - but maybe he was thus its now basketball
As some have said, on to the next guy, but, I personally feel that AB was the most frustrating and the one UConn player who could have made a huge difference and fizzled more as time went on.
I hope he succeeds in whatever he pursues in life - he was always a great team rep.

I liked the dude as a person. He had limitations but I think he could have improved more in 4 years. I don't really think he learned to prize every possession and the ball. For whatever reason he wouldn't own that responsibility.

 

[jibsey]

Quite frankly, I can't agree that the guy that I have seen thrown around like a rag doll for 4 years is "plenty strong". I can't remember a guy spending more time on the floor - and it was from being knocked down or falling over himself not usually aggressively diving into a crowd for a loose ball.

Brimah had no lower body strength, weak hands, little BBIQ but he did rebound better senior year. He ended up on the floor nearly every game. The one think I want to emphasize is that he was a great teammate and he tried very hard by all appearances, and we had no one much better to put in for him though I wish Enoch had gotten more minutes. I'm watching the tournament and seeing mid major talent in the 5 position that would easily surpass what we had and I ask myself how did these programs get these players and how does a 4 time national champion not get them? The recruiting staff not identifying, not trying, making the judgement that what we had was good enough? I'm perplexed.

 

[Chief00]

This is sad.

From a coach's perspective - quite frankly- when breaking down the game - you need to take the emotion out of it - be it "sad" or "thrilled" about something. You need to be analyletical.

 

[Chief00]

Who's asking you questions?

You are not serious? Read the thread! LOL

 

[Doctor Hoop]

Brimah had no lower body strength, weak hands, little BBIQ but he did rebound better senior year. He ended up on the floor nearly every game. The one think I want to emphasize is that he was a great teammate and he tried very hard by all appearances, and we had no one much better to put in for him though I wish Enoch had gotten more minutes. I'm watching the tournament and seeing mid major talent in the 5 position that would easily surpass what we had and I ask myself how did these programs get these players and how does a 4 time national champion not get them? The recruiting staff not identifying, not trying, making the judgement that what we had was good enough? I'm perplexed.

There's only a certain number of bigs in the top 200 that P6/AAC/top schools can target. The key for these mid majors is to identify kids who have the potential to be as good as those, and develop them. But if we were to do that it wouldn't make people who value those top 100 or 200 rankings happy, and you are rolling the dice a bit. However, when it works you end up with someone like a Christian Vital.

 

[dennismenace]

Brimah was a project - pure and simple
He whetted many an appetite with some good things during his freshman year when he had a very good team surrounding him.
When it came to him being one of the "contributors", his short comings really appeared
Granted it didn't help that he had some injuries.
However, not claiming to be an insider, I don't think the kid had enough basketball IQ to process most of the things kids his age should already know and I feel he could not apply many of the skill sets he was being taught. I am in no way saying AB is not smart but he just isn't basketball smart. Maybe in practice he showed he could do some of it but either froze or just couldn't translate it in real game situations.
On a light side - I sure hope the guy was not a soccer goalie - but maybe he was thus its now basketball
As some have said, on to the next guy, but, I personally feel that AB was the most frustrating and the one UConn player who could have made a huge difference and fizzled more as time went on.
I hope he succeeds in whatever he pursues in life - he was always a great team rep.

I suspect he will do fine. Lots of enthusiasm. Gung ho. Just needs to find the right path(s). Good Luck AB!

 

[champs99and04]

I have a somewhat different take on this.

The staff deserves credit for identifying him as someone who, as a freshman, would outperform their recruiting ranking. I'd say many of us were pleasantly surprised by what a sub-200 recruit could give us right off the bat.

The staff did not, by any means, develop him. He was, at best, incrementally better in years 2-4 than he was in year 1.

If the staff wants to take credit for anything, it's identifying underrated talent, not developing that talent.

I think some of the subtle leaps that he made get distorted for a couple reasons:

1. While the coaching staff may have done a good job with him developmentally, they did not do a good job with him on game day. Too often they designed breakneck, hard-hedging schemes that worked with guys like Phil Nolan and Giffey and Daniels but not Brimah, who needed to be more paint bound.

2. For all the things he got better at, he never really shook his one fatal flaw of picking up fouls. He went from 4.3 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore to 4.9 as a junior to 5.2 as a senior. You can't have that from a player you're counting on to be a cog in the machine and that he did not improve in that area is his responsibility.

3. Dude was just a frustrating player and, much like Purvis, his flaws would jump off the screen in such a way that it caused us to understate his value. When you can't do things that a fan can do - like consistently catch the ball, track the ball off the rim, and keep your pivot foot - you begin to lose the benefit of the doubt.

But the one thing fans crushed him for throughout his career was rebounding, and by his senior year, he had gone from a 10.2% rebounding rate as a sophomore to 12.6% as a junior to 13.9% as a senior. His defensive rebounding rate went from 10.8% to 14.1% to 17.7% this season. That isn't a small jump, and during conference play he averaged 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. That's more than enough from a UConn center most years (especially given all of his advanced numbers - like box +/-, offensive/defensive rating, PER - ranked among the best on the team all three years he started), but this season, he was flanked by a crew that represented an enormous devolution from where he started as a freshman, surrounded by talented, smart players.

A lot of this is circumstantial, and when we claim he hasn't improved, it does not account for all of the variables that influenced our perception. Some of the s hit we saw this year - throwing bounce passes at his feet, force-feeding him in the post, using him as a primary screener - doesn't happen on better, more complete teams.

Facey, for instance, is billed as a feather in the staff's cap, but I would actually argue he improved less than Brimah. It's just that, he always had better players in front of him.

 

[CTBasketball]

I think some of the subtle leaps that he made get distorted for a couple reasons:

1. While the coaching staff may have done a good job with him developmentally, they did not do a good job with him on game day. Too often they designed breakneck, hard-hedging schemes that worked with guys like Phil Nolan and Giffey and Daniels but not Brimah, who needed to be more paint bound.

2. For all the things he got better at, he never really shook his one fatal flaw of picking up fouls. He went from 4.3 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore to 4.9 as a junior to 5.2 as a senior. You can't have that from a player you're counting on to be a cog in the machine and that he did not improve in that area is his responsibility.

3. Dude was just a frustrating player and, much like Purvis, his flaws would jump off the screen in such a way that it caused us to understate his value. When you can't do things that a fan can do - like consistently catch the ball, track the ball off the rim, and keep your pivot foot - you begin to lose the benefit of the doubt.

But the one thing fans crushed him for throughout his career was rebounding, and by his senior year, he had gone from a 10.2% rebounding rate as a sophomore to 12.6% as a junior to 13.9% as a senior. His defensive rebounding rate went from 10.8% to 14.1% to 17.7% this season. That isn't a small jump, and during conference play he averaged 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. That's more than enough from a UConn center most years (especially given all of his advanced numbers - like box +/-, offensive/defensive rating, PER - ranked among the best on the team all three years he started), but this season, he was flanked by a crew that represented an enormous devolution from where he started as a freshman, surrounded by talented, smart players.

A lot of this is circumstantial, and when we claim he hasn't improved, it does not account for all of the variables that influenced our perception. Some of the s hit we saw this year - throwing bounce passes at his feet, force-feeding him in the post, using him as a primary screener - doesn't happen on better, more complete teams.

Facey, for instance, is billed as a feather in the staff's cap, but I would actually argue he improved less than Brimah. It's just that, he always had better players in front of him.

I agree. We saw more developmental improvements from Brimah in comparison to Facey.

The fact Facey played really well from Dec. - early Feb. should raise some questions. One being why did this happen so late? If it only lasted for 1.5-2 months can we call it progression, or is it mainly just the law of averages? The latter meaning he started every game for 2 years, he had some skills, so he was going to break out at least a few times?

 

[Tenspro2002]

I agree. We saw more developmental improvements from Brimah in comparison to Facey.

The fact Facey played really well from Dec. - early Feb. should raise some questions. One being why did this happen so late? If it only lasted for 1.5-2 months can we call it progression, or is it mainly just the law of averages? The latter meaning he started every game for 2 years, he had some skills, so he was going to break out at least a few times?

I agree that the staff should not be pointing to Facey as a marker of success. He gave us basically 0.5 good year out of 4, for a former NY POY.

But the manner in which Facey fell short of expectations was far less frustrating than the manner in which Brimah fell short of expectations.

 

[Walker11]

How Brimah has not been developed into an NBA first round pick in 4 years is a tragicomedy.

Good luck finding another person on the internet who agrees with you. In a career full of bad takes, this takes the cake.

 

[Chief00]

I think some of the subtle leaps that he made get distorted for a couple reasons:

1. While the coaching staff may have done a good job with him developmentally, they did not do a good job with him on game day. Too often they designed breakneck, hard-hedging schemes that worked with guys like Phil Nolan and Giffey and Daniels but not Brimah, who needed to be more paint bound.

2. For all the things he got better at, he never really shook his one fatal flaw of picking up fouls. He went from 4.3 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore to 4.9 as a junior to 5.2 as a senior. You can't have that from a player you're counting on to be a cog in the machine and that he did not improve in that area is his responsibility.

3. Dude was just a frustrating player and, much like Purvis, his flaws would jump off the screen in such a way that it caused us to understate his value. When you can't do things that a fan can do - like consistently catch the ball, track the ball off the rim, and keep your pivot foot - you begin to lose the benefit of the doubt.

But the one thing fans crushed him for throughout his career was rebounding, and by his senior year, he had gone from a 10.2% rebounding rate as a sophomore to 12.6% as a junior to 13.9% as a senior. His defensive rebounding rate went from 10.8% to 14.1% to 17.7% this season. That isn't a small jump, and during conference play he averaged 8 points, 7 rebounds, and 3 blocks per game. That's more than enough from a UConn center most years (especially given all of his advanced numbers - like box +/-, offensive/defensive rating, PER - ranked among the best on the team all three years he started), but this season, he was flanked by a crew that represented an enormous devolution from where he started as a freshman, surrounded by talented, smart players.

A lot of this is circumstantial, and when we claim he hasn't improved, it does not account for all of the variables that influenced our perception. Some of the s hit we saw this year - throwing bounce passes at his feet, force-feeding him in the post, using him as a primary screener - doesn't happen on better, more complete teams.

Facey, for instance, is billed as a feather in the staff's cap, but I would actually argue he improved less than Brimah. It's just that, he always had better players in front of him.

Approved - Insightful post.
- Interesting comment about who improved more Brimah or Facey. I am considering a post on Facey.
- I agree about force feeding the post - I think we can agree that happened and did not work. You can argue if it was poor coaching design or poor player execution. I think the only safe pass to Brimah was the olley dunk pass.

 

[jibsey]

There's only a certain number of bigs in the top 200 that P6/AAC/top schools can target. The key for these mid majors is to identify kids who have the potential to be as good as those, and develop them. But if we were to do that it wouldn't make people who value those top 100 or 200 rankings happy, and you are rolling the dice a bit. However, when it works you end up with someone like a Christian Vital.

Not just the 5 slot, there's a lot of talented 6'6" guys who can work down low. I'm just thinking KO and staff have to think out of the box, but I know it's risky. They took a risk with Brimah and Kevin.