THE ROTATION

. . . . should no longer include Shamala. He provide absolutely nothing, no defense or offense and is a liablilty at both ends.

Hoffarber needs to get his shot back, because without it he's a Shamala-clone.

I don't know what is wrong with Bostick (maybe practice habits or something) but he seems to be the only natural scorer we have and he can't get on the court?

I think Nolen's selfish play of late can be attributed to the lack of scorers on the team. No defense is afraid of anyone on our squad one-on-one.

NEED to get the ball inside to Iverson and Sampson, regardless of the percentage they shoot, it will open other guys up and their height is one of our only advantages against nearly every opponent.

LOVE the way Paul Carter plays.

Paul Carter playing 17 minutes is really weird. To me, he's right behind DJ as our most important player and should be on the floor 25+ every night.

The substitution patterns and timing have been something to watch, that is for certain. Different.

JAS last night...

No sense in banging on JAS getting minutes. My assumption is Tubby threw him in there for a few minutes later in the game hoping he'd shake free for a 3-pointer, particularly since nobody else could hit a thing.

Not reading much more into it than that.

Ogee Oglethorpe said:

No sense in banging on JAS getting minutes. My assumption is Tubby threw him in there for a few minutes later in the game hoping he'd shake free for a 3-pointer, particularly since nobody else could hit a thing.

Not reading much more into it than that.

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Exactly what I thought too, Ogee. It was purely at that point a 'why not' situation.

Shamala

I think the reason Shamala was sent in was to obsorb a foul or two. He went in for a few defensive possessions then taken out to run the offense side. No one seemed willing to take a charge; maybe Tubby was hoping Jamal would show some guts. But I still agree, the rotation should be cut down.

I don't think the questions about JAS are about the late game time. He played early in the game for an extended stretch and looked awful again. It bothered me because Tubby said he was going to cut down the rotation, and not five minutes into the game, EVERYONE had played again. There was no continuity nor chance for anyone to even get into a flow. I love Tubby, but this whole juts throw them out there and see who is hot thing isn't working, IMO. Pick some guys and let them play together for a good stretch of time. At this point, what are the chances of JAS "getting hot" anyway?

The other thnig that bothered me was that Tubby said both Iverson and Sampson wouldn't start because of Williams's injury. I was looking forward to seeing something new, probably Paul Carter starting for a change, yet there they were in the lineup.

Before people blast me, I love Tubby and have total faith we are going to be better than ever under his guidance. He just doesn't seem to be following through on a lot of statements and seems to be throwing darts with the rotation. That's all that bothers me and I can have that opinion. I am also of the opinion that he si one of the best coaches in America and we are lucky to have him.

Goph4phan said:

Exactly what I thought too, Ogee. It was purely at that point a 'why not' situation.

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I'll third that. I'm not a big supporter of JAS getting minutes, but with no one hitting anything, might as well roll the dice and see if he could knock down a few.

Rotation (Coach Mo's "Play 8, trust 7")

All this talk about the playing rotation kind of takes me back to a couple years ago after Mo took over for Monson. I remember Coach Mo saying that he liked to coach by the motto. ... "Play 8, trust 7."

With the Gophers' current group, get the feeling on this board (not a consensus, but generally speaking) most folks would like Tubby to at most "Play 9, trust 8". ... with Bostick, Carter, Blake, Iverson, DJ, Devoe, Nolen, Ralph & Westbrook being the 9. It's up for debate who the 9th guy in the rotation would be.

Ogee Oglethorpe said:

No sense in banging on JAS getting minutes. My assumption is Tubby threw him in there for a few minutes later in the game hoping he'd shake free for a 3-pointer, particularly since nobody else could hit a thing.

Not reading much more into it than that.

Click to expand...

I disagree. Tubby plays JAS for one or two rotations in the first half every game. He does this regardless of what's happening on the court. I know he only plays 5 or 6 minutes, but when an impact player like Paul Carter only plays 17 minutes, I have to question the distribution.

I think Tubby has fierce loyalty to JAS. He's a great character guy and Tubby places value in that. The problem is, he's the 11th best player on the team and 11 is too many guys to have to work into every game.

I like Selection's play 9, trust 8 motto. I'd even be happy to change it to play 10, trust 9, as I think Busch really adds energy at times. I wouldn't even say he should necessarily play every game, but he shouldn't necessarily be buried on the bench. Both JAS and JW should be. 10 is still a very large rotation, but considering how balanced we are, I'd be alright with that.