Coaching Strategy to Maximize NCAA Tourney Performance.

[ClonesFTW]

I will never side with resting players a full game(s) in a tournament who are not hurt, essentially load management. We pay a lot of money to travel, buy tickets, hotels, donate to WeWill, etc. to see the teams and players we support play - not rest for hypothetical benefits.

If teams started doing load management for conference tournaments it would ruin this whole week of the CBB season.

 

[Big_Sill]

Its a great question, I really have no idea what the right strategy is.

I'll say this -- I want THIS team to start to feel good about themselves again and supremely confident. Feel like we had that, but lost it.

 

[KennyPratt42]

Gilbert is the really difficult question. Part of me says, sit him or have him play really limited minutes, and get him as healthy as possible for the NCAAs. The other part of me says, you've sat him quite a bit lately and he's probably not going to get much better in the next week, so just let him go for it because he's a senior and doesn't have much time left. Its kind of like when a guy gets in early foul trouble, its hard to balance between protection them vs artificially limiting them by putting them on the bench.

 

[MJ271]

I would bet $100 CF bucks that TJ will do the exact same thing he did last season and play everyone. All the bench guys get a rotation.

I wouldn't be opposed to that. But Otz didn't do that last year--it was two years ago in the season that Grill left, when they beat Baylor in the last game of the regular season and in the first game of the Big 12 tournament.

However, a point against that--on that team they only had Eli King and Conrad Hawley as bench guys who weren't otherwise in the rotation at that time. It was easier to get them in and not have a big negative impact. On this team, that would mean playing all of Watson, Kelderman, Indrusaitus, Fish, Rock, and Hawley for at least a little bit. It's quite a bit more difficult to get six guys in than it is to get two guys in.

 

[madguy30]

Only rest Gilbert but only if he's not 100%.

Even at 2-1 the last three games have shown some glimpses of some really good things, especially defensively and it may be best to try to keep growing.

 

[jsb]

I will never side with resting players a full game(s) in a tournament who are not hurt, essentially load management. We pay a lot of money to travel, buy tickets, hotels, donate to WeWill, etc. to see the teams and players we support play - not rest for hypothetical benefits.

If teams started doing load management for conference tournaments it would ruin this whole week of the CBB season.

And it’s fun for the players to have a run in Kansas City.

 

[CycloneErik]

And it’s fun for the players to have a run in Kansas City.

Well, I don't like fun. I'm against the winning idea now.

 

[jsb]

Well, I don't like fun. I'm against the winning idea now.

Ha! I think we’ve established that results in the Big 12 tournament don’t really correlate with results in the ncaa. So I’m all for everyone having as much fun as possible.

 

[iowastatefan1929]

A big scar from the UAB loss, but TJ has a different chemistry than Fred had. One has to worry about early Thursday game after a thrilling conference tourney run.

 

[Cyhig]

NC State played and won 5 games in 5 days to win the ACC title then went on to the Final 4 last year

 

[isucy86]

Not a believer that conference tournaments wear teams/players down. Sure 4 games in 4 days can be exhausting, but IMO it will impact performance on Saturday of the Big12 Tournament.

In the case of the NCAA Tournament, for all but a few lower seeded teams, the first games are next Thu or Friday. So guys will have 4 or 5 days to rest & recover.

The only exception would be for a player who is battling an injury and in that case reduced minutes or not playing might be a good coaching move. This is where a coach has to know his players and evaluate during the Big12 Tournament. For example, by Fri/Sat if TJ feels guys are hitting a wall, then it makes sense to give 5-10mpg to Watson/Indrusaitis on Fri/Sat.

Hope that's a problem TJ faces

 

[nfrine]

OP, your question should be directed to Fran McCaffery or maybe Jerome Tang...

 

[bsaltyman]

100% balls to the wall.

 

[iowastatefan1929]

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

Nigel made a nice point on the podcast that if we're suffering on rebound that much why not put Watson in the game? His rebound numbers are great.

 

[Walden4Prez]

It has been said that the conf tourneys for teams safely in and with good seeding don’t really benefit at all from their performance there. If that is true, it can only really hurt them by wearing players out or getting them hurt.

It reminds me a little of football now where there are teams that can only be hurt by playing the conf title games.

Do teams eventually want to opt out all together?

 

[iowastatefan1929]

Had TJ been reading this thread? On call on show tonight -> 'We are going down to win the game Wednesday at 11:30am and will sort the rest after that.'

 

[Allikat]

It has been said that the conf tourneys for teams safely in and with good seeding don’t really benefit at all from their performance there. If that is true, it can only really hurt them by wearing players out or getting them hurt.

It reminds me a little of football now where there are teams that can only be hurt by playing the conf title games.

Do teams eventually want to opt out all together?

For my opinion is a loss in the fist two games does not change our NCAA seeding. A win in the third game moves us up a notch. A champioship, particularly if one is a win over Houston, and we are back to a solid 2 seed. No chance for a one.

 

[KennyPratt42]

For my opinion is a loss in the fist two gams does not change our NCAA seeding. A win in the third game moves us up a notch. A champioship, particularly if one is a win over Houston, and we are back to a solid 2 seed. No chance for a one.

The best guess for our current place on the s-curve is at 12 by people that follow NCAA bracketing pretty closely. (I would say anywhere from 9 through 14 seems possible for where we currently sit with the committee.) So if we are at 12, a loss in the first game and maybe the second would likely move us to a 4 seed and it would take three wins and maybe a championship to get us into a 2 seed.

 

[t-noah]

If Gilbert isn't 100%, he sits. And you extend the bench. Keep key players at or under 30 minutes.

No idea what Gilbert's injury is (I've heard LE, more specifically 'groin', but still not sure) or how serious. He now has one full game under his belt (the BYU game in Ames) coming back after injury. Then he was out again v. KSU.

So at least they know how he responded to that first comeback v. BYU. This will factor in to how much, if any, he plays in the B12 Tourney. My guess is that he will play limited minutes each B12 Tourney game (20-25') and they take their chances.