Will Alex and Cam Wear Down?

[Sphinx]

Against UNC, Alex logged 38 minutes, Cam 36 as part of an 8-man rotation. Against Kansas, Alex logged 35 and Cam 36 as we tried to beat the Jayhawks with a 7-man rotation.

Even if we get lucky with injuries and fouls, and these two stalwarts can continue to put in these minutes, what will they have left for legs come tournament time? No question in my mind that our 8-man rotation can be a "juggernaut" healthy and fresh, but will it be healthy and fresh come March?

What we've missed these past two games is a Ross or Stewart sighting. And it's late enough in the year to wonder if the window of opportunity is closing on them.

With Castle's return and Ball's breakout, we may be able to give Cam (and Tristan) an occasional rest, but what do we do if Karaban ever has to sit down? Who plays the 4 in our 4-guard lineup?

 

[aburks41]

Castle coming back is huge because that’s 20-25 minutes that he can potentially take for Cam and Karaban, especially since he can guard the 1-4 spot. If Stewart can give us even 5-8 minutes of solid play by March, we’ll be fully loaded at every single position. Lets see how he continues to develop. Obviously not at the level we want him to be at yet but he wasn’t coming in nearly as polished as Castle or Ball.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Castle coming back is huge because that’s 20-25 minutes that he can potentially take for Cam and Karaban, especially since he can guard the 1-4 spot. If Stewart can give us even 5-8 minutes of solid play by March, we’ll be fully loaded at every single position. Lets see how he continues to develop. Obviously not at the level we want him to be at yet but he wasn’t coming in nearly as polished as Castle or Ball.

/thread

 

[Icehawk]

Karaban played high 30min in every game last season AFAIK so, no, not concerned.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Against UNC, Alex logged 38 minutes, Cam 36 as part of an 8-man rotation. Against Kansas, Alex logged 35 and Cam 36 as we tried to beat the Jayhawks with a 7-man rotation.

Even if we get lucky with injuries and fouls, and these two stalwarts can continue to put in these minutes, what will they have left for legs come tournament time? No question in my mind that our 8-man rotation can be a "juggernaut" healthy and fresh, but will it be healthy and fresh come March?

What we've missed these past two games is a Ross or Stewart sighting. And it's late enough in the year to wonder if the window of opportunity is closing on them.

With Castle's return and Ball's breakout, we may be able to give Cam (and Tristan) an occasional rest, but what do we do if Karaban ever has to sit down? Who plays the 4 in our 4-guard lineup?

Ross and Stewart are not playing against real competition. That was obvious after the Kansas game and likely earlier than that. We have a solid 8-man rotation and don't need to go deeper. Even last year's vaunted depth typically didn't go beyond 8, or maybe 9 if Diarra played.

That said, with Castle coming back and easing back into regular minutes, Spencer will naturally get more of a break.

How Karaban gets spelled is a little more nebulous, though it may include a few minutes (at most) of Johnson alongside Clingan and otherwise would include someone like Castle checking other teams' 4. Fortunately, our guards largely have the sturdiness to handle that sort of matchup for a handful of defensive possessions at a time.

 

[Excalibur]

Almost nobody goes beyond 8 for more than spot minutes or foul trouble. I think we will see Stewart a bit as conference play progresses.

 

[inWV]

Ball and Castle have started. Johnson and even Diarra are capable of playing starter's minutes. However, Karaban and Spencer are pretty essential pieces and will play 30+ unless in foul trouble or the game is a blowout.

 

[OceanDoggie]

It's a good thing Diarra is both a very good ball handler and a strong defender. His minutes are valuable and not wasted trying to figure out what's going on around him.

 

[WhereistheDove?]

Castle coming back is huge because that’s 20-25 minutes that he can potentially take for Cam and Karaban, especially since he can guard the 1-4 spot. If Stewart can give us even 5-8 minutes of solid play by March, we’ll be fully loaded at every single position. Lets see how he continues to develop. Obviously not at the level we want him to be at yet but he wasn’t coming in nearly as polished as Castle or Ball.

We also unfortunately have a soft enough looking mid-to-low end of the conference that we’re likely to have quite a few games this year where they’re just not needed for high 30s.

 

[BigErnMcCracken]

Karaban played high 30min in every game last season AFAIK so, no, not concerned.

Playing high for 30 min/game at this level is impressive as hell.

 

[caw]

Karaban played high 30min in every game last season AFAIK so, no, not concerned.

Cam has also averaged 30+ the past two years. Obviously his feet are an issue but I actually think he has much more backup with Castle, Ball and Diarra all being able to play in his spot. UConn does not have a real four to backup Karaban unless they play a four guard lineup, or play two bigs. We really need Stewart to grow a bit into his game. He flashes some really solid stuff but...

 

[jake14mw]

Yeah, in the first half last night I was thinking "Wow, Karaban's finger has thrown his shot way off, and he's a little shaky on defense, he should be playing less minutes tonight". That made me think of how short our bench has become. Many of the eight guys we played last night had some kind of injury or issue they were dealing with. The prime case for a longer bench, but Ross and Stewart didn't sniff the court. It's obvious that Hurley does not have confidence in them yet in big games.

Huge credit to Karaban for finding other ways to contribute last night while his shot was off. Also, with the bench only 3 deep, give those three guys a ton of credit for playing really solid games. They all stepped up when they needed to.

I guarantee that one of the top things on Hurley's plate is to develop Ross and Stewart so that come March, they can provide quality minutes. He made similar adjustments with last year's team.

 

[Icehawk]

I dunno, based on last year I doubt we see much more of the bench players - but then again DH tossed Singare in for one FT possession due to fouls. But extended time seems highly unlikely.

 

[Fan1978]

Against UNC, Alex logged 38 minutes, Cam 36 as part of an 8-man rotation. Against Kansas, Alex logged 35 and Cam 36 as we tried to beat the Jayhawks with a 7-man rotation.

Even if we get lucky with injuries and fouls, and these two stalwarts can continue to put in these minutes, what will they have left for legs come tournament time? No question in my mind that our 8-man rotation can be a "juggernaut" healthy and fresh, but will it be healthy and fresh come March?

What we've missed these past two games is a Ross or Stewart sighting. And it's late enough in the year to wonder if the window of opportunity is closing on them.

With Castle's return and Ball's breakout, we may be able to give Cam (and Tristan) an occasional rest, but what do we do if Karaban ever has to sit down? Who plays the 4 in our 4-guard lineup?

With castle back we have a solid eight. Assuming everything can get healthy, the defense should be much improved with castle. The shooting should improve and those 2 factors should mean larger leads and margin of victory which will all time for the other freshman.

Nc is a very talented offensive team. I just kept waiting for shots to start falling to spurt away. Eventually it happened and we pulled away. If not for the terrible fast break finishing, this game would have been over much easier. The team is much stronger with castle. They need him defense and toughness. He contributed on some significant defensive and rebounds despite his rustiness. Gonzaga is in trouble

 

[UConnSportsGuy]

Based on the performance of the Big East teams outside of Marquette and Creighton so far this year, Andrew Hurley may lead our team in minutes played in conference play by the end of the year.

 

[dennismenace]

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.

 

[Icehawk]

He said it last year and then ran a tight ship once it mattered, just like I would expect this one. The younger guys aren’t going to jump, they are “up” next year on one of the best teams in the country, they all knew this year would be a lot of bench time.

 

[jibsey]

These have been some very high level top 10 opponents in this stretch but once we start playing lower level BE teams maybe Ross and Spencer get some run giving our starters needed rest. Just get everyone healthy and all will be good.

 

[businesslawyer]

How many men you play doesn't determine how many minutes your stars log. Eight in the rotation means no one of the eight has to play more than 25 minutes if you divide it evenly. The only problem with only having eight you trust is when something happens and the 8 aren't all available.

Spencer's minutes will go down with Castle moving back towards full health. What they don't have, however, is a sub who can give them what Karaban does, which means he will play heavy, heavy minutes as long as he's up to it, as he did by the way last year when we had less of a backup 4 than we do now.

 

[Storrs South]

With the conference being weaker than anticipated, the upside could be more opportunities to work the freshmen in. Ideally that means a lot of reps for Ross and Stewart against SJU, SHU, Xavier, DePaul, and Georgetown with only heavy minutes required for the top 8 against Creighton, Marquette, Nova, Butler and PC.

 

[Hey Adrien!]

Playing high for 30 min/game at this level is impressive as hell.

It’s something else to imagine Karaban’s ceiling once he sobers up.

 

[Kolumbo]

Yes there should be some softer games in conference but let's not forget what happened last January. Oh the agony.

 

[husky429]

We'll be back to full strength with an 8-man rotation (sometimes 9) soon. Great thing about Castle is he can even play the 4 on defense and help Karaban limit his minutes when needed.

I have a feeling he might even be the BEST option to defend guys like Hopkins. Castle is much quicker and has a strong lower body.

 

[HuskyHawk]

With Castle back, we are solidly two deep at every spot on the floor except the 4. Cam's minutes will go down a bit as Solo takes some reps at his natural spot. Diarra has been solid. At the PF we can do one of two things (a) let Johnson shoot and play as a long wing (which is his original position) or (b) play one of Stewart or Ross for at least a few minutes a game. Castle can guard some small 4s, but some of them would be too much for him. Romoglou could also fill in, but I fear his lack of strength at the 4 would be a big problem.

 

[HooperScooper]

Karaban played high 30min in every game last season AFAIK so, no, not concerned.

I'm assuming "high" means 35 or more minutes? Karaban averaged 29 mpg last season so I was thinking that what you said couldn't be true. So I looked it up.

He played 35 or more minutes 6 times. Iowa St. (38 min.), Oklahoma St. (37), St. John's (37), Xavier (35), Marquette (35), and Marquette again (35).

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