Napier, Brimah Named to All-Conference Teams

The American Athletic Conference's inaugural all-conference teams were announced today and featured two UConn Huskies as Shabazz Napier was named to the first team, and Amida Brimah was named to the all-rookie team.

Napier's selection was set in stone quite some time ago as he joined Cincinnati's Sean Kilpatrick and Louisville's Russ Smith as the only unanimous selections. They were joined on the first team by Louisville's Montrezl Harrell, and SMU's Nic Moore.

Napier is second in the conference in scoring (17.8 points per game), assists (5.2 per game) and free throw shooting (.877) and is third in The American in steals at 1.8 per game. Shabazz averaged 19.3 points in conference games, leading UConn to a 12-5 finish in The American and a 24-6 record overall. Things get much more exciting for the Shabazz post season award watch list this coming week when the AAC announces its player of the year, which is a three-headed race that is about as close as you can get.

The slightly more surprising, but well deserved pick was Amida Brimah to the all-rookie team. He joined Louisville's Jerry Rozier, Memphis' Austin Nichols, and USF's John Egbunu and Chris Perry. Brimah is averaging 4.0 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game, and 2.5 blocks per game. When he's been able to stay out of foul trouble, which is rare, Brimah has been an absolute menace defensively, and his play led Rick Pitino to call him "Maybe the most improved player in the conference" in his post game press conference after Saturday's shellacking.