STrib: Not many options left: Should Gophers go with small or big lineup?

per Marcus:

There aren’t many options left for Gophers basketball coach Richard Pitino to put a competitive lineup on the floor for the last seven games of the regular season.

Pitino does appear to have at least two choices that change the way his team plays good and bad. He can either go big or go small.

For one game this season in a 77-69 loss last week against Northwestern at home, the Gophers tried their 6-foot-7 junior leading scorer and rebounder Jordan Murphy at center and had 6-8 junior Davonte Fitzgerald at power forward.

Small ball looked good for about 25 minutes, but it didn’t provide enough spark for the win.

So Pitino decided in Tuesday’s 94-80 loss at Iowa to switch back to having Murphy at power forward and 6-11 senior Bakary Konate at center in the starting lineup.

Pitino said the Gophers didn’t want to go small against a taller and longer Iowa team, but they didn’t have a choice eventually with Konate in foul trouble, 6-10 senior Gaston Diedhiou out with a right ankle injury and 6-8 sophomore guard Amir Coffey missing his sixth game with a right shoulder injury.

“It was challenging because we wanted to go a little bit bigger,” Pitino said Tuesday. “They just kept going inside and beating us up down there.”

http://www.startribune.com/not-many...ophers-go-with-small-or-big-lineup/472174423/

Go Gophers!!

From a little later in the story:

"So the question moving forward is based on the players available in the last game, which lineup should Pitino go with to finish the season? Should the Gophers go small or big? Should they start Washington at point guard and have McBrayer come off the bench, because he’s not healthy?"

Kind of a dumb question because it really depends on the size of the opponent. Given who the team has available if they can go small that would be ideal because it would mean fewer minutes for Konate or Gaston. But that won't really be an option against teams with good size down low as Murphy and Fitzgerald aren't really made to play the 5 and it would lead to Murphy getting into early foul trouble more then likely.

As for the second part involving Washington and McBrayer, it would depend on just how injured Dupree is. If he can't be effective as a starter then it makes sense to put Washington in there but if you can still get quality minutes out of Dupree the team is better off with him starting and Isaiah coming off the bench.

I think they should do what Gardy used to do for the Twins on week-day day games and draw the line-up from a hat.