(02-08-2020 12:15 PM)anti-zip Wrote: (02-08-2020 11:03 AM)JimJoyce Wrote: It’s almost as if some of you guys truly believe the lack of bench/depth is something that could not be avoided.
Yet it seems every year posters like fallsdog point out “disappearing minutes” from games in November/December to games in January and beyond.
What has happened to Beck’s minutes? How about Santiago’s? You mean to tell me you cant find a rotation/combination where guys like Pippen, Williams, Simons, etc can play 32 minutes a game instead of 38? That’s why you’re tired.
Any lack of depth is self-inflicted and you cannot convince me otherwise.
I agree with this. I like Sendy a lot, but the one obvious flaw I've seen with him is how quickly he completely cuts minutes from players, particularly JUCO/transfer players. Castillo is this year's example, but there seems to be one every year. Just in the last few years Kain Harris, Taishaun Johnson, Leo Edwards, Jonathan Nwankwo, and Jerrell DeBerry. I refuse to believe that all of these guys were incapable of holding down a rotation spot at the D1 level. Especially since some of them had before. There's no way we just keep missing this badly on guys that have played at some college level already.
I'm not sure if it's that he doesn't want to deal with growing pains from 2 year players as they try to fit in, or that he wants to encourage them to transfer (they all did) so he has an extra roster spot to play with. It just really doesn't make sense to me that these guys aren't staying in the rotation to help rest the stars. Then you run into a situation like last night where we've gone to only playing 3 bigs and we use Williamson and Peterson in 4 guard lineups a ton. One of those bigs is out and Peterson gets hurt. Instead of going next man up, we play the entire second half keeping two of Williamson, Whittington, and Pippen on the floor at the same time. I really think Castillo could've been a role player on this team, and an important part of next year's team but instead he'll ride the pine all year and probably transfer. We'll use that scholarship on another JUCO big in April and do the same thing with him. Maybe our teams would gel better if we had these guys sticking around for a second year.
If you remember back to the Christian era where he leaned very heavily on JUCOs it wasn't uncommon for a JUCO to really struggle early in his first year but by his Sr year be a key player. Omni Smith is the most obvious example that comes to mind.
The tl;dr version of this... Play Castillo.
The recruiting part of this comment holds a lot of water, no question. But the reality is, of the players you mentioned above, NONE of them went on to do anything, or play anywhere of note.
Now, several freshmen recruits have after transferring out, but that's another story.
I also have felt AC had more to give, but for whatever reason Beck moved ahead of him. Beck (like MP) has value but is a glaring non producer. Strictly as an observation, it seems AC has no real position and without having any one dominant trait (scoring, rebounding so forth) has not been able to earn minutes.
Yes, absolutely much of this is on Sendy and his staff. But off-season you hear a lot about different players, ... then during preseason you hear a lot about other players ... then when the regular season starts, suddenly one can see the game is too physical for some (Bainbridge???), maybe too fast for others (KB???) and suddenly time and opportunity evaporates.
Add in some ill-timed illnesses and injuries and suddenly it's ough to regroup on the fly.
Finally ... also remember when it comes to recruiting, rarely - especially at the mid-major level - do you see two comparable elite players at the same position.
BG had nobody like Turner when he went down, as an example. Why, because players believe they can play 40-minutes every game, and don't want to share time.
It's not an exact science, being a mid-major coach these days. The fact Kent basketball has done it successfully for so long is really a stat not to be overlooked at all.