I agree with all of these takes. Yes, I have just as big of an issue with players standing around. It's terrible to watch and difficult to score. Plus, the opponent spends no energy on the defensive end. But you can have movement without subbing players out every 90 seconds. There are plenty of teams with great movement who don't sub until 8 minutes or longer into the game. And movement for the sake of movement doesn't work either. You ABSOLUTELY cannot succeed at the highest levels by pressing full court for an entire game. An occasional surprise, sure. But Va Tech showed what happens when you know it's coming and are prepared. And they were missing their best player and couldn't get past the next round. It'll work against less talented teams out of conference and at the bottom of the SEC, but that's it. There's a reason you rarely see pressing in the NBA, WNBA or sweet 16 and beyond in NCAA. Unless your take is that KC is just smarter than every Pro or P5 coach out there and has come up with a way to press for 40 minutes when no one else has figured out how to do it.
Changing the narrative, as glv98 put it, is my main point with this. AllVols3, you're right. It does take Jimmy's and Joe's and you won't get them if KC continues to act stubborn. Those were legitimate questions she faced about her style working in the SEC. Especially since the only time Marshall faced good comp it resulted in a 92-49 beating where Va Tech passed all over and around the press. All she had to say was her program is proven, but she might have to make some adjustments for elite players, both for and against UT. Instead, she gave the impression it was her way or else. Club coaches are saying other schools will and already are using this perceived style against UT when they talk to recruits. If she doesn't change the narrative then other coaches will make it up as they go. She needs to get on record in saying that she believes in her system but understands she has learning to do at the highest level. Say in an interview why elite players will succeed in this style and won't be limited to playing in 90 second bursts. Because you can preach about total minutes all you want, even though 4-5 minutes less per game is a bigger deal to most kids that some on this board want to admit, but even with the same minutes there are zero elite players willing to sub out every 2 minutes. Promote the style without the constant subbing.
For the record, if you look at the box score in Nolan's championship game versus Duke, he only had 6 players play 10+ minutes and one of them played 12. His top 5 players played 29-36 minutes each. Yes, he played 40 minutes of hell, but he leaned on his stars. The bench got got their season minutes during the blowout wins. Pretty sure if the guys who played 3, 5 and 8 minutes off the bench would've seen the court 11-15 minutes Duke would have blown them out. Well, they probably would've been eliminated much soon.
