I give credit to Shaver that he isn't making excuses and is calling the team out for their defensive performance Saturday. However, I think there is an excuse readily at hand.

They talk about freshmen hitting a wall about 2/3s of the way through the season because at that point they will have played in more games, at a higher competitive level, than they ever have before.

Consider these numbers:

Knight: 665 minutes this year (534 last year)
Pierce: 698 minutes this year (310 last year)
Milon: 696 minutes this year (499 two years ago at BC)
Burchfield: 675 minutes this year (446 last year)

Cohn, Rowley and Tot have not exceeded last year's minutes played but should within 3-4 games.

Shaver has been lengthening his bench lately (normally at this time of year coaches are shortening theirs).

I don't think this is a result of bench mismanagement by Shaver. It is the inevitable result of losing three players to transfers and swapping out senior leadership for sophomore leadership.

Hopefully we can hang on and scrape out some victories down the stretch but I do think fatigue is a major factor. Perhaps we will benefit from the full week off between the end of the regular season and the start of the CAAT.