I think DH will get more guys involved as the season progresses:
He said at the beginning of the year that the bench is what will make or break us this year.
Ross and Stewart are going to get minutes unless Hurley wants them to go portal. I don't think that is going to happen. They are part of the future. We are going to lose Cam, Newton and probably Clingan and Castle. I think at some point we will also see Singare getting minutes so as not to lose him in portal as well.
DH has repeatedly referred to this program as different, old fashioned and known by how hard they play. He can demand that now that he has an abundance of talent. So far they are more than living up to the hard play aspect. The whole team has bought into it instead of hero ball.
We have the Big East schedule which will be very taxing this year followed by the Big East Tourney and then the NCAA's.
I think we saw what a deep bench meant last year and I think DH's open mindedness to that is something he sees as the way to attract higher end talent and raise the level of tenacity. These guys are not selfish about anything and rack up very high assist levels. Jay Bilas marveled at how smooth our offense was along with the assists and finishing plays. That was not our hallmark even in the recent past. Bilas repeatedly mentioned that they were outhustling and "out finishing" UNC.
For these reasons I don't think he is going to be "like everyone else" and limit the rotation to 7-8 but for a handful of games if that. There are plenty of games to work these guys in the way we are scoring now. This was one of the big adjustments DH made and along with laying off with the refs
helped turn around the season last year.
Anyway, in time we shall see.
You don't play guys just to avoid the risk of them transferring.
I expect that Hurley has had frank conversations with the freshmen about having to earn it, how they measure up to the current roster, and the fact that there will be ample playing time available that they'll have the opportunity to seize next year.
As I already said, the "deep bench" we had last year was still only 8 deep and occasionally 9 when Diarra played (which he didn't always do, e.g. in the championship game). What we had last year was a
quality bench, i.e. the performance did not significantly drop off when we brought in Clingan, Alleyne, and Calcaterra. We're seeing some pleasant surprises so far this year with Diarra, Johnson, and Ball. But having a good bench does not mean that we need to go 9-10 deep, and I'd be surprised if Hurley does this year.
