At the beginning of the 2018-19 basketball season #BearcatNation knew things would look totally different concerning the basketball team this season. That was a fair assumption to be honest they lost Gary Clark and Kyle Washington to graduation and Jacob Evans III to early entry into the NBA. The teams before are coming off back to back 30 win seasons, just to set the table.
With losing that consistent punch from the front court things would be different for junior center Nysier Brooks. Brooks has received solid playing time during his freshman and sophomore seasons, but he has never been a main clog in the machine just a piece to keep it going. In the first two seasons with the program he was purely a rim protector and a finisher at the rim. So, if you did a poll at the beginning of the season most wouldn’t have expected 6’11” Philadelphia, PA native to do much on the offensive end to replace Washington. Most expected him to block and alter a lot shots and before a physical force on the defensive end because of the flashes he displayed, but something changed during the UCLA game. Brooks was matched up with Moses Brown who stands 7’0” and was rated a five star recruit by 247Sports. Brooks outplayed the talented big man on both ends of the floor, but what was most impressive is the offensive efficiency he played with played nice footwork on plays the previous year would’ve resulted in a turnover or a kick out to a guard. The play that stood out to me was a euro step layup Brooks pulled on Brown during a fast break play. In 19 minutes he scored 14 points, six rebounds and two blocks.
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