Amida Brimah Becomes First Ghanaian to Play & Win NCAA Title Match
 |
| Brimah(35) and teammates start celebrating. Photo courtesy: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
University of Connecticut freshman and 7ft Ghanaian centre, Amida Brimah became the first Ghanaian to ever play on a team in Division 1 NCAA championship game - and win! We've been following Amida's progress right from the day he left the shores of Ghana to play ball in the states and have even made jokes about how all Ghanaian hoop fans got to turn to Husky fans because of him - Well, there's still limited vacancy on the Husky-bandwagon; you can grab a free seat.
|
Brimah and Napier
Photo courtesy: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Amida's team also became the first 7-seed team to win a national title increasing the Huskies' trophy count to 4 of 4 appearances in championship games since their first trophy in 1999. Their coach; a Husky himself and former NBA player Kevin Ollie, who played on 13 teams in a 12 year is also among the few coaches to have won a national title within 2 years after signing a five year deal. Twitter kept buzzing with tweets of excitement for his success from former NBA teammates including Allen Iverson, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.
Amida's numbers weren't monster numbers. This UConn team was led by senior guard and most outstanding player of the 2014 tournament, Shabazz Napier who finished with 22 points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals. His six-game NCAA Tournament averages were 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.5 assists and 3.0 steals. Brimah finished the game early with foul trouble(as usual) having made no points, 4 rebounds and 1 block in 13 minutes on the court.
 |
| Napier goes for 2 of his 22 while Brimah looks on Photo courtesy: Getty Images Amida's story couldn't get better, well apart from the fact that he got nastily dunked on in the championship game. |
6 comments: