Is fatigue a factor?

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From the Barn

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I'm wondering if the starters are simply starting to get burned out. Occam's razor would seem to dictate that the team forgetting how to play, psychological distress, Tubby forgetting how to coach, and all the other theories about what is wrong with the team are all a bit too complicated.

Instead, fatigue could lead to poor shooting from the field and the free-throw line, lack of movement on offense, slowing games down, not getting to loose balls, slow defensive rotations, even poor decisions and "lazy" play.

The Gophers rank 216h in the country in bench minutes, and it would be fair to say that when a bench player is on the court with the starters, the starters still carry the entire load.

Just a thought. Hopefully the NCAA hasn't banned "40 minute energy" and similar products.
 

Fatigue is an interesting question. I compared the 11-12 conference stats with 12-13 to see how it compares. Here is a breakdown for players who played on both teams in conference play:
• Williams: 33 in 11-12 and 30.3 in 12-13 = -2.7
• Austin: 28 and 31.2 = 3.2
• Andre: 18 and 30.3 = 12.3
• Coleman: 21 and 29.7= 8.7
• Welch 27 and 11 = -16
• Oto 11 and 6 = -5
• EE 13.8 and 10.3 = -3.5
• Mav 14 and 8 = -6
• Ingram 3.5 and 8 = 4.5

11-12 Departures (Ralph 24, Chip 14)
12-13 Additions (Trevor 31,Wally 1.6, Mo 3.4). For both Wally and Mo I have factored DNPs into the minutes).
Not sure what this means. Clearly the guard rotation has been smaller which has severely limited Welch’s minutes and to a lesser extent Mav’s. Considering Sampson has moved on it is kind of surprising that EE’s minutes have dropped. What may skew the stats is that 12-13 has had much more meaningful games so minutes last year might not have been fatiguing as minutes this year.
Another assumption that can be made is that this has been a terrible year for Welch and a disappointing one for EE, Oto and Mav.
 

Let's take Andre playing 12.3 extra minutes per game.

That's at most an extra 24.6 minutes per week of hard exercise.

Fatigue? This isn't the NBA or the NHL.
 

Fatigue doesn't seem to be a factor for the best two teams in the Big Ten:

MICHIGAN
Burke - 34.4 min
Hardaway - 34.3 min
Robinson III - 33.3 min
Stauskas - 31.4 min
Morgan - 18.3 min
McGarry - 17.2 min

INDIANA:
Zeller - 28.9 min
Hulls - 28.6 min
Olidipo - 28.0 min
Ferrell - 27.6 min
Watford - 26.8 min

MINNESOTA
Williams - 29.3 min
Austin Hollins - 29.3 min
Dre Hollins - 28.7 min
Coleman - 27.8 min
Mbakwe - 23.6 min
 

If fatigue is a factor, better check the water around campus because something isn't right. They don't play a ton compared to a lot of other teams.

If they're being worked like crazy in practice, who knows.. maybe that's the case.. but, I don't think so.
 


Fatigue? They get (at minimum) a three minute rest every four minutes, along with a 15 minute halftime.
 


These are young kids. When I was that young, I could run up and down the court all day. And it's not like Tubby is playing these guys the entire game. He still loves throwing out his worthless bench for some minutes.
 

Whatever explains Austin being money from the free throw line and with short jumpers early in the year and missing those same shots against MSU - that's the explanation I'd like to hear.

Whether stats bear it out or not, mental fatigue is a possibility at this point.
 



both austin and andre are wearing down physically... and it's starting to show with poor shooting.

GHer's were ripping austin for poor shooting last night and for bad zone D by Andre..

but these guys have to chase baseline runners thru multiple back picks in the half court all night..
then they are expected to run the O, hit 3's, and drive into the lane (and probably get knocked down).

especially this last stretch of opponents.. wisky, iowa, MSU... all teams that run the same grinding 1/2 court O.. very physically draining to defend if you are a guard.

to me, tubby is requiring too much of these guys... either switch on D, or don't run the O thru the guards so much. you can't physically do both in the b1G

this is why other guards in the b1g are not yet as worn down.. look at michigan, wisky, etc.. almost all their guys can handle the ball and create shots on their own so their guards are not asked to do as much on O.. for us, all the O goes thru Dre...
 

dboy said:
both austin and andre are wearing down physically... and it's starting to show with poor shooting.

GHer's were ripping austin for poor shooting last night and for bad zone D by Andre..

but these guys have to chase baseline runners thru multiple back picks in the half court all night..
then they are expected to run the O, hit 3's, and drive into the lane (and probably get knocked down).

especially this last stretch of opponents.. wisky, iowa, MSU... all teams that run the same grinding 1/2 court O.. very physically draining to defend if you are a guard.

to me, tubby is requiring too much of these guys... either switch on D, or don't run the O thru the guards so much. you can't physically do both in the b1G

this is why other guards in the b1g are not yet as worn down.. look at michigan, wisky, etc.. almost all their guys can handle the ball and create shots on their own so their guards are not asked to do as much on O.. for us, all the O goes thru Dre...
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C'Mon man! Are you freaking serious??? This isn't the NBA. Do you really believe playing 30 minutes twice a week is wearing down a 20 year old? Especially when you are slowing the tempo down the way Tubby is lately. Zebede Howell and Cookie Holmes could keep up with that tempo.
 

Let's figure out every reason why we may not be winning games, other than Tubby's in game strategies lately have been horrid!
 

Jibrahnike said:
These are young kids. When I was that young, I could run up and down the court all day. And it's not like Tubby is playing these guys the entire game. He still loves throwing out his worthless bench for some minutes.
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Because that's the same as college basketball.

No offense but to compare "when you were young" to guys playing college ball is just plain dumb.

I play 3 games a week of basketball right now and work out the other 4. I'd probably die after one game in the big ten.

You are taking hit after hit from the best college athletes, you are chasing them around, etc.

Not saying the idea has merit fatigue is a factor, but yours was a pretty ridiculous comment.
 



We keep hearing excuses for performance that seem to implicate the toughness of this team. Whether it is if they are tired, or they are lacking confidence, or their coach is saying mean things about them, or there is something wrong with their psyche. I really don't want to believe that these players are as soft as those kind of hypothesis suggest. Let's hope they can finish strong hear to dispel any doubt about their toughness and strength as a team with some big wins down the stretch.
 

scher215 said:
Because that's the same as college basketball.

No offense but to compare "when you were young" to guys playing college ball is just plain dumb.

I play 3 games a week of basketball right now and work out the other 4. I'd probably die after one game in the big ten.

You are taking hit after hit from the best college athletes, you are chasing them around, etc.

Not saying the idea has merit fatigue is a factor, but yours was a pretty ridiculous comment.
Click to expand...

I played college ball. And often played all 40 minutes. Yes, it can be exhausting, but it's not like you're playing an 82 game schedule like the NBA. And it's not like the guys are playing all 40 minutes like I did. Your stamina at age 20 is absolutely ridiculous. Especially if you have a coach like Tubby that will whip you into shape September and October. Fatigue is not the problem with this squad. These kids are young and athletic. They can play 10 minute stretches without getting fatigued, and they have 4 or 5 days between games.
 

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