With Tyler Olander suspended indefinitely for drunk driving, and perhaps having jeopardized his entire future, we’re here to tackle the important questions: most notably, what does this mean for the UConn Men’s Basketball team?
Given the dearth of frontcourt talent on the roster, losing any big man is a blow, though given that Olander aspires to be a poor man’s Travis Knight, it’s a good guess that this is a survivable loss. With Enosch Wolf already out of the picture, If Olander is gone long-term, this leaves UConn with few options at the pivot, a position where they already struggled last year.
- Kentan Facey – definitely the most talented of the group, Facey was an ESPN 100 recruit, and is the most likely player on the roster to be a passable center immediately. His offensive game needs work (sound familiar?), but he has serious bounce and can rebound and protect the rim. If his eligibility issues are cleared up by the start of the season, he’s probably the best choice to pick up the bulk of the minutes at center.
- Phil Nolan – Nolan played a fair amount at center last year, with adequate results. He’s also not much of an offensive threat, but given that he’s the only true big returning, he’s going to be seeing the floor as well.
- Amidah Brimah – Really, the only true center on the roster, Brimah was probably supposed to be redshirting this season. With this latest development, it’s a fair bet that he’ll be asked to contribute sooner. Brimah is a project with, you guessed it, a developing offensive game, and I doubt he’ll be able to do much more than offer 5 fouls on the defensive end.
What this does mean is that most of the inside scoring is likely to be coming from DeAndre Daniels, who can hopefully continue to channel the inner-Donyell that we saw near the end of last season. If Daniels can take his post scoring to another level, UConn fans will be saying “Tyler who?”
They may have already been saying that, but now they’ll be saying it louder, I mean.
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