Below are some thoughts I typed out late last night after the Championship game was over. Apologies for the odd format, but I am going to leave it as is.
What you need to have to win in The Big Dance:
Carolina's surge in playing well coincided with their greatly reduced rotation, as evidenced most starkly in their Duke drubbing with 0 2nd half subs.
Vets and "DUDES" should be self-explanatory.
KC was a DUDE, no doubt, but still not a vet.
Fulkerson was the ultimate vet, but unfortunately, not quite a DUDE. He wasn't a guy who should be logging major minutes on a championship team to have his strength level as a vet "inside player".
Santi is almost a DUDE and mostly a vet, should be fully both next year.
ZZ is gonna be a DUDE and should almost be a vet by next year.
Josiah, if he can be both, is a huge key, obviously.
He needs to be something closer to Agbaji on offense.
Nkamhoua will definitely be a vet, and hopefully can be enough of a dude that no right-minded person would want Uros to have minutes over him. Aidoo and BHH being not-yet-vets can hopefully be fine with the other guys being sufficient in their vetness/dudeness.
Looking at minutes distributions across rosters, Kansas and UNC both had basically a 6.5-7 man rotation, whereas we were closer to 10.5.
To have that kind of minute spread, there needs to be a strategic basis behind it, not simply doing a favor for a former co-worker or any other such charity. This isn't Upward basketball (though I may begin my coaching career in a few more years at that level
).
What you need to have to win in The Big Dance:
- Veterans (may be shortened to vets in some places below)
- "DUDES"
- A tight/coherent rotation. "Scrubs" (sub-standard talents) can't be getting minutes just to be getting minutes.
Carolina's surge in playing well coincided with their greatly reduced rotation, as evidenced most starkly in their Duke drubbing with 0 2nd half subs.
Vets and "DUDES" should be self-explanatory.
KC was a DUDE, no doubt, but still not a vet.
Fulkerson was the ultimate vet, but unfortunately, not quite a DUDE. He wasn't a guy who should be logging major minutes on a championship team to have his strength level as a vet "inside player".
Santi is almost a DUDE and mostly a vet, should be fully both next year.
ZZ is gonna be a DUDE and should almost be a vet by next year.
Josiah, if he can be both, is a huge key, obviously.
He needs to be something closer to Agbaji on offense.
Nkamhoua will definitely be a vet, and hopefully can be enough of a dude that no right-minded person would want Uros to have minutes over him. Aidoo and BHH being not-yet-vets can hopefully be fine with the other guys being sufficient in their vetness/dudeness.
Looking at minutes distributions across rosters, Kansas and UNC both had basically a 6.5-7 man rotation, whereas we were closer to 10.5.
To have that kind of minute spread, there needs to be a strategic basis behind it, not simply doing a favor for a former co-worker or any other such charity. This isn't Upward basketball (though I may begin my coaching career in a few more years at that level
