I'm going to go out on a limb and say, without looking it up, that no one has averaged 35 minutes a game during Cronin's tenure, (or the tenure of either of the 2 previous coaches, either) and a lot of those guys had worse options to rotate with.
You are going to have a rotation, and the reality of this team is that the lesser big men are not impact offensive players, and need a lot more help. Developing a rotation that makes it easier to keep a dynamic PG on the floor with them makes a lot of sense.
I think asking any PG on this team to play 35 min a game is absolutely absurd.
The way we press and the way we ask our pg to lead our press and then ask them to run the offense and play with pace, it’s just impossible to do on a nightly basis for 35 a night.
If we need cane to play 35 min in a single elimination game then so be it but you guys notice how by the last 6 minutes of the first half, we wear a team down and they start to struggle, well that doesn’t work when we are tired ourselves.
I don’t think there is a cosch in the country that would want to play their better player for 35 a game night in and night out. Rest is good.
35 a game is just way to much to ask from a guy who is defending at this level for the first time in his career.
28-30 is the magic number for me.
I mean depth is an asset. Depth doesn’t always mean building the lead, depth can just come in and maintain it or just not lose it fully.
We aren't talking APB and USF here obviously. We aren't talking about when we get up 15-20 points either. We can rest players in those games.
We also have tv timeouts, fouls, and other game stops to catch breath. Evans has no troubles doing it all...all the time.
Evans averaged over 37 minutes in our December 4 game stretch. Then did it again the 4 games before ecu.
As much as I like Clark, a lot of our slow starts can be partially put on his shoulders. I can recall a number of games where he gets the ball and does nothing with it and also where he misses some bunnies early. With that said, it comes down to Micks gameplan, so I agree the lineup isn't going to change. Mick wants to run the offense through Gary and Kyle and understandably so. Well, he likes to pull Kyle two minutes into a game half the time so we end up feeding Gary. He called Gary out in the South Florida game for getting the ball and waiting for the double team. And Gary responded beautifully. Vs. ECU, Gary missed some easy shots early and he pulled Kyle for something early. We end up settling for jump shots a lot early in games and that doesn't lead to quick points when no one is hot. The team needs to get into their rythym earlier. A lot of people say Cane is the one who jump starts things, but that isn't really typically the case. He got in two minutes into the game the other night and we looked no better. Same vs. South Florida, he came in around his usual time and we didn't really wake up till late in the first half. Whereas I'm as concerned as anyone about slow starts at least our defense is still there. In the past we might get down big. With this team we hang around with teams maybe longer than we should but we don't really get down big (the 10 points to South Florida withstanding and of course the Xavier game).
Evans averaged over 37 minutes in our December 4 game stretch. Then did it again the 4 games before ecu.
Evans averaged over 37 minutes in our December 4 game stretch. Then did it again the 4 games before ecu.
The UCF postgame Mick was saying that he told Gary that someone has to go right at Tacko Fall and he would just stand there all night. Gary did start to go right at him but not in the first half, was the second half when we started to pull away.
There was another game where in the postgame Cronin told Gary to make a move and not wait for the double team, again he started to do this in the second half.
Do the players ignore the game plan and it takes a half of play to realize? Not sure if it is entirely Gary but definitely noticed these two instances.
-14 O/U 127
I think Gary is such an unselfish player and generally makes the right decision, that he was just used to waiting for the double then kicking to the shooter. Those habits die hard. Gary needs just feel when to wait for the double and feel when to attack. I like that he is being more aggressive, but I just don't think that is his first instinct
Cronin has said that Evans is an anomaly in that he never gets tired. Most other players do.
And Troy's pace of play and our matchup Zone let him play a lot of minutes. If Troy had to do what were asking Cane and Justin to do, He'd be gassed every single game.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say, without looking it up, that no one has averaged 35 minutes a game during Cronin's tenure, (or the tenure of either of the 2 previous coaches, either) and a lot of those guys had worse options to rotate with.
Deonta Vaughn 08-09 - 35.8 mpg
Leonard Stokes 02-03 - 35.0 mpg
Sean, Lo, Dion, Kenny, Hicks all had season(s) over 34mpg
Deonta Vaughn 08-09 - 35.8 mpg
Leonard Stokes 02-03 - 35.0 mpg
Sean, Lo, Dion, Kenny, Hicks all had season(s) over 34mpg
Troy averaged around 32.5 last year and I think he was like 25th in our conference in mpg...lol.
This isn't navy seal training. A player in shape can do this.
Deonta Vaughn 08-09 - 35.8 mpg
Leonard Stokes 02-03 - 35.0 mpg
Sean, Lo, Dion, Kenny, Hicks all had season(s) over 34mpg
Yea, I wonder why we were one of the best teams in our conference and made it further than SMU in the tourney?
Could it be that our conference sucked because they lacked depth and had to play their best players nearly every minute of the game?
SMU beat us in tourney. They also won 16 games in a row to close the season and conference tourney. Bad example.