To understand how pivotal his breakout game versus UCLA was you have to have understand what Brooks has come from. He is a guy who has played on teams (high school and AAU) that were guard oriented and never ran plays for the big man. All of his opportunities came from him hustling and rim running, so that is all he knew, oh and play defense. Brooks and Cronin have both been quoted, “he isn’t used to getting the ball” and it showed early in the season, missing dunks and rushing post moves. He stated he needs to stay aggressive because he’s put in the work. Fast forward to the UConn game he might’ve made to of the best post moves of the season on back to back plays early in the second half. First he made a driving hook shot (very Abdul Jabbar like) and then next play he hit a turnaround jumper after hitting a Hakeem Olajuwon esqe shoulder fake to give himself room.
Over the past six games he has averages of:
69.7 from the field, 63.3 from the line, 5.2 rebounds, 1.83 blocks and 10.8 points
In this run he has tallied 17 points twice which are career highs for the big man. He also had games of 0 and 2 points during the run and you don’t want to see that, but progress is a pleasant surprise for this program. I remember seeing comments saying the Bearcats shouldn’t be getting him the ball in the post early in the season and now it seems like the plan is working for the betterment of Brooks and the Bearcats.
If Brooks can keep developing and stay consistent the Bearcats will be an even tougher out this year, because most didn’t expect a post presence this season without Clark and Washington. New roles for new folks and the junior seems to be going in the right direction.
