CougarCorner

About a 3rd of the way through the season, an instate game, our best player and nationally recognized player with the initials TH goes down to an injury, and our season hangs in the balance while we await news. Where have I seen this before?

I didn't have high hopes for this season, but what hope I did have is starting to wane.

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Hopefully we can host an NIT game or two this year. That would be kinda fun.

Don't forget it was a 20 pt lead late in the game when it happened.

snoscythe wrote:Don't forget it was a 20 pt lead late in the game when it happened.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What will be really familiar is that other players don't have enough experience when the star goes down. When you get a lead either run up the score like crazy to impress voters (not a great idea) or let your other players play. Someone mentioned how earlier in the year we were more focused on becoming the highest scoring team in the nation than on development and that we should be throwing the ball down low on every possession late in blowout games to get the bigs some real game experience. Now they'll get to get that experience when we're not up by 20.

Stirfry wrote:

snoscythe wrote:Don't forget it was a 20 pt lead late in the game when it happened.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

What will be really familiar is that other players don't have enough experience when the star goes down. When you get a lead either run up the score like crazy to impress voters (not a great idea) or let your other players play. Someone mentioned how earlier in the year we were more focused on becoming the highest scoring team in the nation than on development and that we should be throwing the ball down low on every possession late in blowout games to get the bigs some real game experience. Now they'll get to get that experience when we're not up by 20.

yes, it was me and maybe others. the sad part about this "working theory'"/observation/clear cunumdrum, is that not only are the new bigs not being developed, the old and now injured guy himself has diminished in his offesnive output over the last few years. Last year i thought it was Mika who was taking all the touches and Nate filled in gaps, but he has virtually nothing left.
And to add to the OP, yes it is freakishly ironic the two national attention gainingTHs have gone down to little brothers and if this team loses another mainstay (like JW) in KC, who cant and isnt superman, and this season would be toast.

I think part of the reason to keep playing Haws even when up by 20 is to keep his average high. Another POY candidate or national leading scorer would do wonders for Rose's recruiting not to mention Haws' professional prospects.

And, as it looks from Roses comments, KC is hurting. His point production and rebounds showed that vs WSU. So, maybe TH needed also to stay in. BYU had some dry spells and needed both of them in. After being up 18 when he went down, with 345 remaining, Final score only by 8? BYU has poorous defense. it has to outscore teams. we all know that. Otherwise, yes, he should have been on the bench.

Cougs_Rule wrote:And, as it looks from Roses comments, KC is hurting. His point production and rebounds showed that vs WSU. So, maybe TH needed also to stay in. BYU had some dry spells and needed both of them in. After being up 18 when he went down, with 345 remaining, Final score only by 8? BYU has poorous defense. it has to outscore teams. we all know that. Otherwise, yes, he should have been on the bench.

There has been very little tappering of KC's playing time. I've been shocked at how much KC is playing.

As much as we like to say how "deep" this team is, it really isn't. It's basically 3.5 players:
1) Haws
2) KC
3) Winder
4) Fischer half the time

Outside of those 3.5, there is no point production. We lose to Standford and UMass, Rose should definitely start giving more minutes to the bench. At that point a NCAA tourney appearance is slim to none and unless our bench starts getting some serious minutes we're going to be hurting real bad next season.

Gunk wrote:

Cougs_Rule wrote:And, as it looks from Roses comments, KC is hurting. His point production and rebounds showed that vs WSU. So, maybe TH needed also to stay in. BYU had some dry spells and needed both of them in. After being up 18 when he went down, with 345 remaining, Final score only by 8? BYU has poorous defense. it has to outscore teams. we all know that. Otherwise, yes, he should have been on the bench.

There has been very little tappering of KC's playing time. I've been shocked at how much KC is playing.

As much as we like to say how "deep" this team is, it really isn't. It's basically 3.5 players:
1) Haws
2) KC
3) Winder
4) Fischer half the time

Outside of those 3.5, there is no point production. We lose to Standford and UMass, Rose should definitely start giving more minutes to the bench. At that point a NCAA tourney appearance is slim to none and unless our bench starts getting some serious minutes we're going to be hurting real bad next season.

Well that is going to have to change. The likely candidates to add some scoring are Halford, Bartley, Nielson and maybe Nixon.

We are going to have to rely on KC and Winder to provide points every game. If Nielson is starting KC is going to give him some open looks. I assume Winder will start if Haws can't. That means off the bench Halford has a the green light and scoring mentality. He has his limitations but he seems like the best bet for consistent scoring. Bartley is a wildcard.