NCAA Basketball: In-depth look at Hawaii star big man Bernardo Da Silva
By Bryan Mauro
Why you should know Bernardo da Silva
There are not many players in the NCAA who play like Da Silva does. Especially guys who are true back-to-the-basket big men with the athleticism and the footwork that the Brazilian has. Hawaii is never going to light the nets on fire and as mentioned, they play an extremely deliberate style on the offensive end of the floor. In the past seasons, the big man has never gotten that many looks on the offensive end as Hawaii was running two bigs and the other big, Kamaka Hepa in this case, was one who could stretch the floor and step out and hit threes, and consistently made shots outside of the paint.
Da Silva had no intent to shoot from outside the painted area. That is fine and something that you should live with given that he shot 55% from the floor a season ago. Hepa is gone now and Da Silva should get a lot more run in the offense which should see his points per game increase if the big man can score with the same efficiency he has in previous seasons. Da Silva doesn’t need to score to impact the game for the Warriors. In fact, he often does a lot of damage without scoring double-digit points.
The big man is one of the best shot-blockers in the Big West and can be one of the best shot-blockers in the country. He is always already a skilled rebounder and without another big man on the floor, he should average close to double-digit rebounds for the season. Da Silva like every player has some room for improvement and that is at the foul line. The Brazilian gets fouled a lot but only makes 50% of his foul shots. Coach Ganot would like to see that number increase.
The other thing that is holding Da Silva back is his penchant for fouling. He averaged over 3 fouls per game and did foul out of a few key matchups for the Rainbow Warriors. The fouls also hindered the number of minutes coach Ganot was able to play his big man. He averaged under 30 minutes per night, but with his bigger role in the offense he should start to see upwards of 30 minutes per night.