Prospect Update: Tyan Brinar (2019)
It’s been a roller-coaster year for 6-foot 3 guard Tyan Brinar, and when the dust settled, he was reflecting on a junior season in which he played — and dominated — JV at Hillcrest.
He transferred to Brighton last summer, but was declared ineligible to play varsity by the UHSAA. He was going to stick it out and play JV with Brighton, but ended up transferring back to Hillcrest.
Brinar wasn’t able to play varsity after transferring back to Hillcrest, and instead, he played JV all season.
“I’ve just been working on my game, I’m dunking with ease now, and feeling pretty confident and a lot quicker. I’m feeling pretty good,” said Brinar, Utah’s 38th-ranked 2019.
“I’ve been working on skill-development, and taking some time to work on my body and work on myself. If you put any junior on JV, you expect him to kill it, and I think I did that.”
The plan for Brinar is to stay at Hillcrest and make an impact with the varsity next season. In the meantime, he’ll play his 17U season this spring and summer.
He says he’ll either play with Salt Lake Rebels, Utah Basketball Club or Exum Elite.
“I’m gonna go to all the tryouts and see what teams I make and just go from there,” said Brinar.
Naturally, the lack of exposure has led to some lackluster recruitment up to now for Brinar. But, there’s still some schools taking notice.
“I’ve had some interest from a bunch of small schools and JuCo schools. Nothing serious, no offers yet. They like the way my personality is, and they like the way I play. Even if it’s just at the JV level, they still see me impacting games in a better way than most kids would,” said Brinar.
“It’s definitely been hard to get exposure, but at the same time, I’m kind of glad I’ve had this time off. I’m stronger now, and have been able to develop myself better.”
This summer will be a big one for Brinar, a chance to finally prove he’s one of Utah’s best guards.
“I definitely hope I can get my name out there, whether a big school, a small school, I just want to get my education paid for, that’s all that matters for me,” he said. “I hope that within the next six months I can start getting some more interest and maybe some offers before my senior season.”