Shorten the Bench?

[Thunder Good-Oil]

We hopefully got ours out of the way already, we had bad injury luck early in the year.

It also seems to me that we’re possibly having the usual seasonal flu working through the roster earlier this year.

 

[Thunder Good-Oil]

The FT numbers are from full season, all minutes.

I’ve already said this multiple times…I’m talking about competitive games, not blowouts.

I’m not following the FT numbers argument. But I don’t care to either.

 

[bleedingTNorange]

I’m not following the FT numbers argument. But I don’t care to either.

I was posting how much better the 5 starter & Key are at FT verse the other 4 “rotational guys” (Plav, Awaka, Mashack & Aidoo)….it’s another reason to 1. Go small. 2. Shorten the rotation by giving those 6 more minutes.

Currently we rank 116th nationally in FT% at 73.1%…the 6 man rotation of the starters and Key combine to shoot 78.3% from the line which is Top 10 nationally. Plavsic & Mashack are 2 of the lowest on the team, every point matters in close games.

 

[walkenvol]

Yet Uros and Awaka lead the team in field goal percentage at 63% & 64% so somehow that has to be a positive for them?

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Yet Uros and Awaka lead the team in field goal percentage at 63% & 64% so somehow that has to be a positive for them?

Gotta look a little deeper…

Nkamhoua shoots some 3’s which obviously is gonna lower his overall fg%, their 2pt% is almost identical for all 3, 64% for Nkamhoua & Awaka, 63% for Plav. So essentially all 3 are just as efficient from 2, Nkamhoua adds in a 35% threat from 3 as well, and then from FT line:

Nkamhoua 71%
Awaka 65%
Plavsic 38%

 

[bleedingTNorange]

Awaka & Mashack combined for 4 minutes, pretty clear rotation shortening transpiring.

 

[Namorto1]

Awaka & Mashack combined for 4 minutes, pretty clear rotation shortening transpiring.

Yep, appears that is what Barnes wants to do. You were right. And we played like crap again with a shortened rotation. 3 of 4 losses we had a short bench. Anyone who gets inconsistent run is going to play timid when they get in the game, without any confidence. When our starters are struggling we have no recourse. More minutes mean you are going to get more tired. We looked tired and uninspired from the jump last night. Even had a 6 pt lead late against a very average Florida basketball squad and couldn’t throw it into the ocean. And they ran us out of the gym late…and yet we are an experienced group and supposedly a top 5 team in the country.

We will play better at home but last nights game has to be concerning. I still can’t imagine it. How do you lose by double digits, with 20 more field goal attempts and out rebounding your opponent? Just mind boggling. I bet we could look up that stat for every NCAA game this year and not find it more than once.

 

[volsarelife1]

The team has pretty much played like crap since the shorten the bench talk

 

[VOLINVONORE]

Shorting the bench would not be the best thing to do with our team appearing to be very tired.

 

[Namorto1]

Shorting the bench would not be the best thing to do with our team appearing to be very tired.

Agree. Turned what was a strength (our depth) into a weakness. No set rotation, folks lost confidence, afraid to make mistakes, etc…. I will say however I liked the pace of our first half against Vandy. It slowed in 2nd half somewhat and don’t think we handled the zone well at times. They showed more offensive aggression than we did and it won them the game. We could not tie them up defensively. Strangely enough, with James likely out we may have to have a longer bench.