Only played 7 again tonight. I know the schedule gets a little easier in Feb, bit I'm a tad worried our guys may run out of gas if we can't find some minutes off the bench. Thoughts?
Bench
- Thread starter MilehighClone
- Start date
Agree - need two other players to play 5-8 minutes. No legs under us right now. Glad we don't play until Saturday.
I have to believe something is going on in practice that leads Fred to believe Edozie and Gibson would be a disaster on the court, because it's becoming harder and harder to understand how those two are getting 0 minutes game after game.
Three questions.
1. Fred played in the NBA 10 years, and they play 82 games with multiple back-to-backs. Do you think he understands how to handle a long season and to know when too much is too much?
2. Have our last two teams gotten tired in February/March or have they played their best basketball of the year?
3. How many guys do we have in the Top 10 in minutes played in the B12? Hint: It's less than two.
1. Fred played in the NBA 10 years, and they play 82 games with multiple back-to-backs. Do you think he understands how to handle a long season and to know when too much is too much?
2. Have our last two teams gotten tired in February/March or have they played their best basketball of the year?
3. How many guys do we have in the Top 10 in minutes played in the B12? Hint: It's less than two.
All good points DOC. This team is not that deep. When we get Vaughn and the rest of the crew next year we may be 10 deep. Then it will be a strength. I know that McKay is a beast. Seen it first hand. The potential for next year is sick. Lets keep cheering on this team and things will be good in Cyclone Nation. Monte gets better every game. Matt will get the confidence and be huge very soon. The kid can shoot and shooters need to keep shooting.
I wonder if a contributing factor is that we've been playing from behind a lot. For instance, KU played 9, but 2 of them only played spot minutes when they were holding a lead.
I'd like SDW to get minutes for his development, but don't think he's needed as far as giving guys rest. A few big minutes, on the other hand, would be nice. Hard to take him out, but Niang always just looks so gassed.
Of course Niang always looks gassed. Between his body type, his play style, and a bit of craftiness on his part he'll always look gassed.
This, a thousand times this. How many times do we see him dog down the floor to lull his defender to sleep only to take the pass for a wide open three when he gets down there. Or he'll dog down the floor and then make his defender look foolish when he takes him one on one with three or four totally different post moves on successive possessions.
Objects in mirror are not as tired as they appear.
One other thing to remember. We're in the middle of a one game in twelve days stretch. CFH knew it was coming and kept his rotations short knowing the rest was coming.
We won't play 10, I promise.
People have said the bolded part each of the last 3 years. but it's always a 7, maybe 8, man rotation. That won't change next year. There may be a couple more players getting spot minutes here or there, like Naz last year and SDW this year, but I guarantee you by conference season we'll be running a 7-8 man rotation.
But the point remains the deeper the team can go the more aggressive on defense they can be and the more presses Fred can throw out there without being quite as concerned about foul trouble. The recipe for beating both Iowa State's men and women has been to play very aggressively because they aren't going to call them all and you will take ISU out of their game. It would also be nice for our defenders to be able to go for the hard foul once in a while rather than giving up layups and dunks even if it is only to make them hear footsteps once in a while. With shaky depth they have gone out of their way to avoid the fouls at the expense of a lot of points and the momentum that goes with them.
I think part of it may be the Saturday/travel/Monday game thing too. Granted, Kansas had a similar schedule, but they do play a little deeper bench, even if only for a few minutes. Plus, the game before ISU was a 26 point blow-out for them. Most of their starters only played about 25 minutes in that one. They also had a shorter road trip. I would guess that their players had to be more rested in terms of physical strength.
When a team shoots poorly, that can be a sign of fatigue, especially in the legs. The way ISU shot that game, I think a lot of it was that they were tired. No one will admit that though.
I really think CFH has got to utilize Gibson, SDW, and Edozie more. 5-10 minutes a game minimum for each. If he doesn't, I think we are going to see more of this, and by the end of the season it will not be fun to watch.
I don't think the rest of the season is any easier. Plus, there are 4 more "short-turnaround" games that don't follow the normal Saturday/Wednesday schedule:
*February 3rd ISU @ Okie State. Before that....Feb. 1 ISU plays OU at home. OSU plays Baylor at home
*February 10th ISU @ WVU. Before that...Feb. 8 ISU plays TCU at home. WVU plays at Kansas.
*February 18th ISU plays Texas in Ames. Before that... Feb. 15 ISU plays TTU in Ames. On Feb. 13, Texas plays WVU in Austin, so an additional 2 days of rest and prep for Texas
*March 4th ISU @ Baylor Before that....March 1 ISU@ K-State, Baylor versus Texas Tech in Waco.
I would say only the February 10th game favors ISU, or is at least an equivalent situation for ISU and their opponent.
When a team shoots poorly, that can be a sign of fatigue, especially in the legs. The way ISU shot that game, I think a lot of it was that they were tired. No one will admit that though.
I really think CFH has got to utilize Gibson, SDW, and Edozie more. 5-10 minutes a game minimum for each. If he doesn't, I think we are going to see more of this, and by the end of the season it will not be fun to watch.
I don't think the rest of the season is any easier. Plus, there are 4 more "short-turnaround" games that don't follow the normal Saturday/Wednesday schedule:
*February 3rd ISU @ Okie State. Before that....Feb. 1 ISU plays OU at home. OSU plays Baylor at home
*February 10th ISU @ WVU. Before that...Feb. 8 ISU plays TCU at home. WVU plays at Kansas.
*February 18th ISU plays Texas in Ames. Before that... Feb. 15 ISU plays TTU in Ames. On Feb. 13, Texas plays WVU in Austin, so an additional 2 days of rest and prep for Texas
*March 4th ISU @ Baylor Before that....March 1 ISU@ K-State, Baylor versus Texas Tech in Waco.
I would say only the February 10th game favors ISU, or is at least an equivalent situation for ISU and their opponent.
I'm guessing it'll be 8, which I like:
Morris, Thomas, Long
Nader, Hogue, Niang, McKay
is a 7 man rotation. One of Custer, SDW, and/or perhaps a certain FR recruit would push it to ~8 nicely. 4 guards, 4 bigs. This of course assumes no immediately eligible transfer.
Hoiberg needs to find a way to get Dorsey-Walker, Gibson and Edozie some minutes. You can't go through a tough Big XII schedule playing only 7 guys. It not only doesn't work, but it kills your future development. I can't see Dorsey-Walker sticking around after this year if he can't even be given a few minutes per game given that it is possible other players will be coming in next year as well.
