Rotation

[GoNtheDistance]

we can all harp on how terrible Roy is and was last night but regardless of his shortcomings which we will continue to fight against, we MUST shorten our rotation. berry, Paige, Jackson, hicks and Johnson. With Britt and Meeks off the bench as needed for 10-15 minutes a game depending on situation and foul trouble, etc. frankly if our bigs are playing well and not gassed, I'd leave Meeks fat ass on the bench. Britt plays hard and does a respectable job on both ends of the floor so he doesn't kill us. Theo Pinson is what he is and can't be trusted in key situations and should hover around the 5 minute mark for minutes played per game.

Nobody else should leave the bench.

 

[goheels653]

I basically agree with this, although I think maybe 15-20 for Meeks/Britt and 10 for Pinson. I noted in another thread, Duke had their best lineup on the floor all night, and we didn't. That's why they hung around every time we built the lead up to 8 or so. Over the long term, no way Duke can win a high percentage with only 5 guys, but that's different than 8 guys, and having their best players against our not best players won them this one game, tired or not.

 

[heels05champs]

Roy must've forgot what it's like to be 18-22 years old. These kids are young and in the best shape of their life. You're not gonna wear them down in a 40 minute game with multiple tv timeouts. Stop with the 10 man rotation BS and play your best 7-8 guys the entire game. Last night proved that Roy's ignorant rotation won't wear down a team.

 

[Hark_The_Sound_2010]

I agree and have been preaching the shorter rotation for awhile. There are 200 minutes to go around in a regulation game. With the breakdown in the OP (assuming 15 each to Britt/Meeks and 5 to Pinson) that means that the starters need to handle 165 minutes - or 33 each. Barring foul trouble (which we weren't in last night) - 33 minutes should be no problem for these kids. And it'll keep continuity and momentum flowing. And if they start to get tired in the second half.... use timeouts to give them a breather. We know Roy doesn't use timeouts to extend games and call plays at the end, so why not use them as recovery times in between media timeouts in the second half, to keep the best players on the floor?

People may not think a 4 minute stretch of a Britt, Paige, Pinson, Maye, James in the first half can have all that much of an impact on the game - but you're wrong. Them being even just -5 during that stretch, as opposed to the starters being +5, is a 10 point swing late in the half. That turns a 14 point halftime lead into a 4 point lead. That's the difference between coming out and just blowing doors off in the beginning of the second half, and having the other team come out fighting.

 

[GoNtheDistance]

Agree hark. Those little 4-5 minute stretches sometimes kill us more than people think. Like last night up 6-7 and looking to stretch the lead but we start getting cute with sub patterns and it shows up late in a game that we should have been up by 12-15 for much of the night.

 

[jah420]

Those 4-5 minute stretches with our incapable players prevent us from ever stepping on any decent team's neck when we get a chance. It is infuriating to watch!

 

[goheels653]

I would love to be a fly on the wall in coaching staff meetings about this. My gut tells me the assistants, if they were the head coach, would handle the rotation differently. I just wonder if any of them ever express their opinion on that to Roy. Or, more specifically, whose decision is it ultimately to have Maye as the only big guy on the court for the close of the first half? Is the rotation in-game up to one of the assistants, with Roy's direction from big-picture meetings throughout the season? The Maye example was honestly just unfair to the kid. Even if he deserves/is capable of giving 5-6 good hard minutes per game, how the coaching staff could throw him to the wolves without giving him Brice, Hicks or Meeks (or even James) as support down low blows my mind. Of all the crazy shit last night, that 2 minute stretch at the end of the half is the one I just can't get over. I don't believe there is a single coach other than Roy that would have ever let that happen for any two-minute stretch of any game, let alone that critical two-minute stretch of that critical game.