Fred Hoiberg: Minnesota is the Suprise Team in the Big Ten

[Holy Man]

The mayor is highly unlikely to ever coach here.

But that won’t stop his agent from spreading rumors through Doogie.

 

[PhillyGopher]

I'm reminded of Pat Fitzgerald discussing what a spectacular coach Tim Brewster was doing in 2010.

Which coach was Brewster doing in 2010? I don't recall reading about that.

 

[stemar]

Ch

Which coach was Brewster doing in 2010? I don't recall reading about that.

Chip Kelly?

 

[Costa Rican Gopher]

I have the same feeling and some concerns about that moving forward. I have more concerns about having only three guards, a potentially very precarious situation.

That's a legitimate concern, but that 3 more than we had the last couple years. If we get Carrington back, we're at 4 solid guards. That'd be 4 guys who can handle the ball, and a lot of situational match-up flexibility on defense.

 

[TwistingMyMelon]

That's a legitimate concern, but that 3 more than we had the last couple years. If we get Carrington back, we're at 4 solid guards. That'd be 4 guys who can handle the ball, and a lot of situational match-up flexibility on defense.

True, if we get him back, but there's no guarantee of that. A team certainly can play well with only three guards but that forces a lot of minutes on those three and if one of them is hurt, then you're really increasing the pressure. Pitino had this situation in his best year. He had four guards on the roster but he wouldn't play one of them (understandable in that case). The remaining three stayed healthy until the Big Ten tournament but when Springs went down near the end of the quarterfinal game, the team was really diminished.

Someone else posted here that he thought this team plays better when three guards are on the floor. He's probably right but it's tough to have three guards on the floor for very long when there are only three capable ones on the roster.

 

[goldenboy]

It was a rarity (as our roster never seemed to be deep enough), but I really enjoyed Clem’s best team (the FF team) that had 5 strong starters with a backup at each position. We subbed a pg for a pg, not shuffling a sg over to cover like you do with a 3 guard rotation. We got more bench players involved, reduced the minutes for the starters, and gave live reps to the backups so they improved faster (would Q have been a star if he hadn’t gotten meaningful time spelling Sammy?). We were then better prepared for injuries, too. I suppose there are fewer teams running traditional 1 thru 5 positions, so shared rotations for wing or post spots are more common.