Rotation

1

1and1sju

Well-known member
 So following Media Day today I saw a blurb on ESPN.com, and the reporter quotes coach Lavin as saying he plans to use a 9 or 10 man rotation.

We start the season with 11 scholarship players, and add Branch in December.

For argument sake, let's say coach goes with a 9 man rotation. Who are the 2 guys who spend most of their time learning from the sidelines this year?

We spend a lot of time discussing which newcomer might make the biggest impact, on the flip side of the coin there's also the question of who still needs time to develop? 



I really don't have a feel for it; but my guess would be Felix and possibly God's Gift, actually. I've heard coach talk very little about either in any of his comments this preseason, and both are at positions that could be come crowded.
 
 So following Media Day today I saw a blurb on ESPN.com, and the reporter quotes coach Lavin as saying he plans to use a 9 or 10 man rotation.

We start the season with 11 scholarship players, and add Branch in December.

For argument sake, let's say coach goes with a 9 man rotation. Who are the 2 guys who spend most of their time learning from the sidelines this year?

We spend a lot of time discussing which newcomer might make the biggest impact, on the flip side of the coin there's also the question of who still needs time to develop? 



I really don't have a feel for it; but my guess would be Felix and possibly God's Gift, actually. I've heard coach talk very little about either in any of his comments this preseason, and both are at positions that could be come crowded.
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I would definitely agree on Felix, I think he is a year away from contributing. The next player is tough, My guess is Jones or Gift.
 
 Felix won't see PT.. I would also agree that GG will be riding the pine. The only reason why it wouldnt surprise me is cause he seems like a hard worker, if he improves enough to merit some PT then I'd expect Obekpa to be moved along slowly in terms of freshman minutes. 
 
 So following Media Day today I saw a blurb on ESPN.com, and the reporter quotes coach Lavin as saying he plans to use a 9 or 10 man rotation.

We start the season with 11 scholarship players, and add Branch in December.

For argument sake, let's say coach goes with a 9 man rotation. Who are the 2 guys who spend most of their time learning from the sidelines this year?

We spend a lot of time discussing which newcomer might make the biggest impact, on the flip side of the coin there's also the question of who still needs time to develop? 



I really don't have a feel for it; but my guess would be Felix and possibly God's Gift, actually. I've heard coach talk very little about either in any of his comments this preseason, and both are at positions that could be come crowded.
Click to expand...
 

Lavin said he'd like to look at 10 guys but realistically get it down to an 8 man rotation. And correct me if I'm wrong but they say it's 13 scholarship players.

Make no mistake about it - Christian Jones will be apart of the rotation. I haven't seen an interview where Lavin hasn't raved about what CJ is bringing at practices.

My best guess will be Garrett and Balamou not seeing the floor as much during OOC.
During Big East play, I think it'll be Greene.

The reason I say Garrett is because unless his jumper has improved, there's just not many wing minutes out there at SF. Pointer is a superior defensive player and will be out there.

The reason I say Greene during BE play is that I see Branch and Harrison on the floor at the same time a lot. And although Greene is a better defensive player, I think Marco's consistency from 3 will get him more PT than Phil.
 
 So following Media Day today I saw a blurb on ESPN.com, and the reporter quotes coach Lavin as saying he plans to use a 9 or 10 man rotation.

We start the season with 11 scholarship players, and add Branch in December.

For argument sake, let's say coach goes with a 9 man rotation. Who are the 2 guys who spend most of their time learning from the sidelines this year?

We spend a lot of time discussing which newcomer might make the biggest impact, on the flip side of the coin there's also the question of who still needs time to develop? 



I really don't have a feel for it; but my guess would be Felix and possibly God's Gift, actually. I've heard coach talk very little about either in any of his comments this preseason, and both are at positions that could be come crowded.
Click to expand...
 

Lavin said he'd like to look at 10 guys but realistically get it down to an 8 man rotation. And correct me if I'm wrong but they say it's 13 scholarship players.

Make no mistake about it - Christian Jones will be apart of the rotation. I haven't seen an interview where Lavin hasn't raved about what CJ is bringing at practices.

My best guess will be Garrett and Balamou not seeing the floor as much during OOC.
During Big East play, I think it'll be Greene.

The reason I say Garrett is because unless his jumper has improved, there's just not many wing minutes out there at SF. Pointer is a superior defensive player and will be out there.

The reason I say Greene during BE play is that I see Branch and Harrison on the floor at the same time a lot. And although Greene is a better defensive player, I think Marco's consistency from 3 will get him more PT than Phil.
Click to expand...
 

You're nuts. Greene and Garret are studs.
 
 Felix won't see PT.. I would also agree that GG will be riding the pine. The only reason why it wouldnt surprise me is cause he seems like a hard worker, if he improves enough to merit some PT then I'd expect Obekpa to be moved along slowly in terms of freshman minutes. 
Click to expand...
 

GG will be riding the pine? HUH?
 
My best guess will be Garrett and Balamou not seeing the floor as much during OOC.
During Big East play, I think it'll be Greene.

The reason I say Garrett is because unless his jumper has improved, there's just not many wing minutes out there at SF. Pointer is a superior defensive player and will be out there.

The reason I say Greene during BE play is that I see Branch and Harrison on the floor at the same time a lot. And although Greene is a better defensive player, I think Marco's consistency from 3 will get him more PT than Phil.
Click to expand...
 

Garrett and Greene will receive quality minutes.
 
 Can't reduce this lineup to 8 guys. We'll use 10 because we have that much depth and talent. I think Gift does get bounced down to 11th man because we have guys with such varied skill sets. Indications are that Christian Jones isn't anywhere near the bottom of the roster at this point and somewhere in the rotation. Felix Balamou might be outside the top 10 right now, but I can still see him getting minutes. He's young and needs some work, but is a talented slash, athlete and defender with nice midrange game. I still think we'll use all of our talent as much as possible. Injuries and foul trouble will also dictate some of that. Hopefully no major injuries of course.
 
 So following Media Day today I saw a blurb on ESPN.com, and the reporter quotes coach Lavin as saying he plans to use a 9 or 10 man rotation.

We start the season with 11 scholarship players, and add Branch in December.

For argument sake, let's say coach goes with a 9 man rotation. Who are the 2 guys who spend most of their time learning from the sidelines this year?

We spend a lot of time discussing which newcomer might make the biggest impact, on the flip side of the coin there's also the question of who still needs time to develop? 



I really don't have a feel for it; but my guess would be Felix and possibly God's Gift, actually. I've heard coach talk very little about either in any of his comments this preseason, and both are at positions that could be come crowded.
Click to expand...
 

Lavin said he'd like to look at 10 guys but realistically get it down to an 8 man rotation. And correct me if I'm wrong but they say it's 13 scholarship players.

Make no mistake about it - Christian Jones will be apart of the rotation. I haven't seen an interview where Lavin hasn't raved about what CJ is bringing at practices.

My best guess will be Garrett and Balamou not seeing the floor as much during OOC.
During Big East play, I think it'll be Greene.

The reason I say Garrett is because unless his jumper has improved, there's just not many wing minutes out there at SF. Pointer is a superior defensive player and will be out there.

The reason I say Greene during BE play is that I see Branch and Harrison on the floor at the same time a lot. And although Greene is a better defensive player, I think Marco's consistency from 3 will get him more PT than Phil.
Click to expand...
 

You're nuts. Greene and Garret are studs.
Click to expand...
 

Thanks for the compliment.

Care to offer your opinion on the rotation?
 
I first heard this 9 or 10 man rotation said by the announcer for our Midnight Madness. I don't take much credence into what he said though. I think Gift and Felix and likely the least minutes on the team but it all depends on matchups and injuries which sadly will inevitably happen. 
 
 I can't see Garrett or Phil not being part of any rotation. But, then again I'm not in the staff meetings, so I guess anything is possible.


I just think there's some truth to this rotation business. I'm not putting a lot of faith in the announcer Moose, but I would guess when coach says that, he probably has a depth chart in the back of his head.

Even if we're running all game, I just can't see us playing more than 10 guys on a regular basis. And if we are, that's probably a mistake because you'll never get continuity and chemistry that way.
 
 I can't see Garrett or Phil not being part of any rotation. But, then again I'm not in the staff meetings, so I guess anything is possible.


I just think there's some truth to this rotation business. I'm not putting a lot of faith in the announcer Moose, but I would guess when coach says that, he probably has a depth chart in the back of his head.

Even if we're running all game, I just can't see us playing more than 10 guys on a regular basis. And if we are, that's probably a mistake because you'll never get continuity and chemistry that way.
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I think 10 is the magic number. I agree not many teams go past 10. I've always been one to say I don't agree with using all the ships like we have but thats why I'm not a coach :)

1st Semester I see 11 guys.

Harrison
Greene (how bad is injury? Didn't seem bad as he was dunking at MM but didnt scrimmage)
Garrett
Pointer
Karr
Sanchez
Marco
Obekpa
Gift
Jones
Felix

2nd semester you add in Branch and Felix would presumably see minutes drop. Gift I also think will see minutes drop and no issues there since he's a Sr. and you don't have to 'keep' him happy per se.
 
For those interested, the last time Steve Lavin had a team this deep was the 2000 UCLA Bruins. 10 players got at least 12 minutes a game, and an 11th, Sean Farnham, while only getting 7 minutes a game, was the starter in 11 games.

35 min: Earl Watson
33 min: Jason Kapono
28 min: Jerome Moiso
22 min: JaRon Rush
22 min: Dan Gadzuric
19 min: Ray Young
17 min: Moose Bailey
15 min: Matt Barnes
15 min: Rico Hines
11 min: Billy Knight
7 mins: Sean Farnham

The team lost in the Sweet 16 when Earl Watson went down with a fractured Eye Socket at the end of the round of 32 game - a 105-70 crushing of REALLY good Maryland squad (Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter, Drew Nicholas and Taj Holden)
 
Thanks CR. I think if you put our roster up against that one at the end of the year, starting with D-Lo and going from there, you'll probably see a fairly similar minutes breakdown. With 9 guys getting 15+ minutes on that team, you can see how many minutes there are to spread around playing the way Lavin plays. In addition to on court results, it's positive for recruiting if kids feel like they can come here and get significant minutes despite a talented roster top to bottom.

Between his slide in production the second half of last year and added talent this year, I can see why some view Gift as being towards the back end of the rotation this year. But I could also see him being a bigger part of the mix that we might anticipate. He was effective on both ends in the first half, but all the minutes playing rim to rim and banging in the post as our lone interior player seemed to take it's toll on him. As it would most anybody under those circumstances, but especially for someone who relies on his size and athleticism the way Gift does. He seemed zapped of energy, and nowhere was this more noticeable than his rebounding totals from the end of January on.

Once you hit empty, it's very difficult to revitalize yourself in-season. We see it happen to players all the time. It's not until they have the summer to recharge that they get back to normal. If Gift can get back to the level of energy and activity he flashed through the first two weeks of January last year, with his size and athleticism, I see him giving us an important 15+ minutes per game at the 5.
 
 Felix won't see PT.. I would also agree that GG will be riding the pine. The only reason why it wouldnt surprise me is cause he seems like a hard worker, if he improves enough to merit some PT then I'd expect Obekpa to be moved along slowly in terms of freshman minutes. 
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GG will be riding the pine? HUH?
Click to expand...
 

Don't think I stuttered but let me reiterate. It would shock nobody if he is benched, if you read other posts you'd see a few others say he will be phased out. He can save himself if he improved vastly down low
 
For those interested, the last time Steve Lavin had a team this deep was the 2000 UCLA Bruins. 10 players got at least 12 minutes a game, and an 11th, Sean Farnham, while only getting 7 minutes a game, was the starter in 11 games.

35 min: Earl Watson
33 min: Jason Kapono
28 min: Jerome Moiso
22 min: JaRon Rush
22 min: Dan Gadzuric
19 min: Ray Young
17 min: Moose Bailey
15 min: Matt Barnes
15 min: Rico Hines
11 min: Billy Knight
7 mins: Sean Farnham

The team lost in the Sweet 16 when Earl Watson went down with a fractured Eye Socket at the end of the round of 32 game - a 105-70 crushing of REALLY good Maryland squad (Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter, Drew Nicholas and Taj Holden)
Click to expand...
 

CR, can you find a boxscore (or remember one) from the games that season?

I'd be curious because they did have a lot of guys who ended up averaging 12+mins. But I'm looking at the end of the year stats and see that Rush only played in 9 games, Farnham missed 10, Rico missed 4 games, Barnes missed 5 , and Knight missed 5 games.

So, on a given night, how deep did he really go down the bench? They ended up all averaging good minutes, but that's because on a given night 2 or 3 guys were probably always out no? So was coach really playing 12 guys? 
 
For those interested, the last time Steve Lavin had a team this deep was the 2000 UCLA Bruins. 10 players got at least 12 minutes a game, and an 11th, Sean Farnham, while only getting 7 minutes a game, was the starter in 11 games.

35 min: Earl Watson
33 min: Jason Kapono
28 min: Jerome Moiso
22 min: JaRon Rush
22 min: Dan Gadzuric
19 min: Ray Young
17 min: Moose Bailey
15 min: Matt Barnes
15 min: Rico Hines
11 min: Billy Knight
7 mins: Sean Farnham

The team lost in the Sweet 16 when Earl Watson went down with a fractured Eye Socket at the end of the round of 32 game - a 105-70 crushing of REALLY good Maryland squad (Juan Dixon, Steve Blake, Lonny Baxter, Drew Nicholas and Taj Holden)
Click to expand...
 

CR, can you find a boxscore (or remember one) from the games that season?

I'd be curious because they did have a lot of guys who ended up averaging 12+mins. But I'm looking at the end of the year stats and see that Rush only played in 9 games, Farnham missed 10, Rico missed 4 games, Barnes missed 5 , and Knight missed 5 games.

So, on a given night, how deep did he really go down the bench? They ended up all averaging good minutes, but that's because on a given night 2 or 3 guys were probably always out no? So was coach really playing 12 guys? 
Click to expand...
 

Very astute observation, Disco Duck. If you add up all the minutes these guys combined played 224 minutes per game. I'm pretty sure they didn't average 5OT's per game and this doesn't take into account any other players like walk ons who might have gotten a minute or two.

Of course the scholarship players on last year's STJ team averaged 234 minutes per game, a number that is obviously affected by the number of games played by Nuri, Amir and Stith.

Not sure what I'm trying to say here but thought I'd say it anyway.
 
 PS Disco Duck is meant as a term of endearment. Every time I see your posts I see that first before I realize it's Desco.
 
 PS Disco Duck is meant as a term of endearment. Every time I see your posts I see that first before I realize it's Desco.
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Haha thanks. No worries, I didn't take it any other way. ;)

And I see what you're saying I think.
The end of the year stats can paint a funny picture. Because, you look at us last year for example. We had 8 guys who averaged 14 minutes. But we never even had 8 guys on the team at the same time lol. So it's a little misconceiving I think when you're trying to gauge how many guys coach is going to play regularly. 
 
i can't believe that Gift would not receive ample playing time. He was a warrior last season and I think Coach will have some loyalty to the returning players.This is Gift's last season and I think he will be moved to his natural power forward position where he will be a better fit than playing center.
 
 
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