MN Daily Column: Losses cost Gophers this season

per the Daily:

Richard Pitino has done almost everything to get the Minnesota men’s basketball team back on track.

He’s banned Twitter, flip-flopped point guards and shuffled frontcourt rotations, all to no avail.

Fans and pundits even pointed fingers at the head coach himself as Pitino tried to fix a hole in Minnesota’s ship using duct tape.

The fact is, this season came down to not what the Gophers had on their bench, but what they didn’t have: depth.

http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-basketball/2015/03/08/column-losses-cost-gophers-season

Go Gophers!!

BleedGopher said:

per the Daily:

Richard Pitino has done almost everything to get the Minnesota men’s basketball team back on track.

He’s banned Twitter, flip-flopped point guards and shuffled frontcourt rotations, all to no avail.

Fans and pundits even pointed fingers at the head coach himself as Pitino tried to fix a hole in Minnesota’s ship using duct tape.

The fact is, this season came down to not what the Gophers had on their bench, but what they didn’t have: depth.

http://www.mndaily.com/sports/mens-basketball/2015/03/08/column-losses-cost-gophers-season

Go Gophers!!

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Bleed-- A couple of things: 1) The last sentence doesn't add up. Bench is your depth. 2) I would argue the point in the article that the Badgers had that much depth. If anything, it was cause for concern this season as there had been a lot of inconsistency when the three reserves in the rotation came in.

I'm not feeling him.

NewBerlinBucky said:

Bleed-- A couple of things: 1) The last sentence doesn't add up. Bench is your depth. 2) I would argue the point in the article that the Badgers had that much depth. If anything, it was cause for concern this season as there had been a lot of inconsistency when the three reserves in the rotation came in.

Click to expand...

The author doesn't really say the Badgers have depth. The point was that Wisconsin functioned like a well oiled machine regardless of who was in at the time.

There's a bit of a difference between the Wisconsin and Minnesota benches. Once Jackson went down, the Badgers didn't have much depth but Wisconsin turned to their bench just for the purpose of some rest for the starters and occasionally reducing foul trouble (but, since the Badgers foul less than most any other team, that isn't as big of an issue). Wisconsin's starting five, both before and after the Jackson injury, are rock solid so their bench players aren't called upon to perform in lieu of starters who aren't performing. Contrast that with various Minnesota starters such as Hollins, Mathieu, King, Morris, and Walker who at various points of the year were yanked because they just weren't performing in one way or another. Wisconsin's bench appeared to be good enough for the very little that was needed of them. Wisconsin's bench might become an issue if they get into foul trouble against a top team in the tournament.