A Thought

[WuDrWu]

It's my belief that most upper echelon teams in college basketball don't give 2 shakes about what happens, big picture, November through early January. If you lose some games, that's the price you pay for developing talent, depth and not wearing guys out you're going to need in February, March and hopefully, April.

The best teams get better and are fully loaded for bear at the end of the season assuming injuries haven't decimated them.

What if that's what Gregg has been doing? I'm not suggesting we've been dogging it, or tanking or playing possum. But what if the goal the entire time has been to put the team in the best possible "shape" come February, March and April?

I want to have 11 guys ready if needed, but now my top 7-8 can go all night because they aren't worn down trying to go 32-2 because they HAD to. Does anyone think the talent, effort, execution and coaching at Cincinnati is anything less than enough to beat pretty much anyone in college basketball? I believe that "game" is good enough to be there with EVERYONE.

I think there's a chance, a chance, that we haven't turned up the volume on this squad yet to 11......and by design.

And someone remind me the last time in a BIG game late in the season where you weren't impressed by the preparation of a Gregg Marshall coached team.


I'll hang up and listen off the air.

[AndShock]

I disagree. I think our Cincy “game” is good enough to be there with everyone who doesn’t have a great offense or an elite scoring guard. If we manage to win a couple games in the NCAA tournament, we’re eventually going to get shredded by a team with a Trae Young type. Maybe all of our players can manage to be “on” from 3 and we can win a 95-90 type game, but history is not on our side for a deep, deep run.

[FlyingWheat]

This is why I’ve never had a problem with his TO strategy. The bigger the game, the later in the year, the more it tends to revert to a more typical strategy. I doubt that’s a coincidence.

[AZ Shocker]

With the insertion of CJ Keyser last night.. I was wondering that too. Maybe developing him this season and "hiding" him on the bench for another stud to emerge in March that opponents haven't really been able to scout. But then I realized we were down a man last night (LS) and I suppose we needed him. He played really well btw!

Or...perhaps coach is "hiding" AM on the bench for that same reason. Would that not be ridiculous if AM has developed enough in practice that the coaches know they could go to him for big minutes come March Madness??? Lol That would be insanely awesome...but I regress...highly doubtful.

And yeah I agree and you are absolutely right that Coach is always well prepared for the big games late in the season. He's simply a well gifted head coach that sees things differently than most and knows how to incorporate that vision into team and game preperation. Go Shocks!!!

[WheatShock]

Your AM scenario sounds crazy but every year in the tournament there is at least one team that has a deep bench guy come up huge and help win a game due to foul trouble or injury.

[wusphlash]

CJ got his opportunity to play last night because Gregg's first choice continued to make the same mistakes that have kept him on the bench. Fortunately, CJ came through in a big, big way. But alas, he'll probably get hidden away again once Landry returns.

[ShockerPrez]

Like this? Only our Denzel is good, right?

[OregonShocker]

I have a hard time believing HCGM EVER dials down the intensity. I also don't believe that he's not concerned by players putting out less effort at times. If any of these guys has NBA expectations, they can't coast part of a 30 game season, because the NBA has 82 game seasons; they are essentially saying they can produce for 15 games and that's it?!
I believe what we see in intensity (Cinn vs Tulane) reflects more the personal gearing up for certain games that some players experience (Younger Shaq is an example, while FVV and RB seemed to have it every game).

[60Shock]

I seriously doubt that coach would dial down on intensity too much based on that poor stretch we went through a few games back.

Might be a great move if there was a button you could push, or a gear you could just shift into whenever you wanted. Otherwise, a coach could be flirting with disaster.

[Rocky Mountain Shock]

HCGM doesn't like losing--whether it's an exhibition or in March. But I do agree that earlier in the season the bench is longer and perhaps the goal is not to beat teams by 50 but rather build experience and depth. Whereas Kentucky or Duke must build experience in its starters early and risk later season burn out, we can build experience on the bench.

I expect the performance level to be ratcheting up steadily over the next few weeks. If the Cincy game was an example of our ceiling (and I think we can play even better), we can beat anybody anywhere if our heads are right.

[Shox The Revenant]

No chance he's dialing it down. While we were in the MVC, we had to go undefeated in the regular season to get a chance of being a 1 seed. Even though the AAC is a better conference, our non-con teams didn't have as good as season as we had hoped so he's wanting to put out a line up that gives us the best chance of winning each and every game. That said, I wouldn't be angry if he had a secret weapon up his sleeve he's just waiting to release come tourney time.

[BOBB]

Sorry, Doc. Not buying it. I have never seen Gregg as a "leave something in the tank" guy...other than timeouts. I do think that in general his strategy of trying to limit minutes is a good one as the season wears on, but megadouche Grayson Allen played 40 minutes the other night. I expect him to have enough gas to perform well in the tournament.

I do expect we will be prepared for whatever teams we play in March. If this squad has another level of defensive intensity, I will be excited to see it on the one hand, and on the other mad that I didn't see it much this year. Taking HCGM's adage, I think we've seen the 20 or so games of who we are and it's a middling defensive squad. If we can coax those 5 games of better than we really are at the right time that would be awesome.

As far as AM or CJ being a Bakeresque secret weapon...no.

Sort of off topic, but if Landry had a hardcore case of flu, then I am down with him sitting out. It can be hard to even muster the strength to go to the bathroom to take a leak. However, if there were really twelve scouts there last night and he was just feeling off, then that is not the action of a young man ready to turn pro next year.

[1972Shocker]

I think the goal is to always have your team peaking at the end of the season. Keeping your players legs as fresh as possible is certainly one way to do that. However, I think 3G's solution is to have as much depth as possible so that he can spread the minutes around while still having all of his guys give max effort when on the court. Does he always get max effort. No but I am confident it is expected.

He might shorten his bench a little come NCAA Tournament time but I think he still plays 9 guys to varying degrees. Hopefully, all 9 of those guys are dialed in come March and we have the flexibility to matchup as well as possible and respond to adversity as it arises..

We absolutely need Landry, Shaq, Austin and Conner playing well. If we could add Markis and Darral to that group more consistently and just have Rashard, Zach and Rauno do what the do best and avoid what they don't do well we should have plenty in the tank.

[60Shock]

Unfortunately, our three last conference games are all tough and it is very doubtful that our ten top 10 players are going to get much respite or reduced minutes in the chase for the Conference Championship, nor in the Conference Tournament. But t'would be very nice if we could get numerous minutes out of #'s 11 and 12.