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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5286016, member: 12088"] This is the question for me: is a 5+5 rotation [B]in March[/B] really practical? Morgan fell out of the rotation in February due to injury, and Aubrey’s lingering injury status inhibited kept her from fully entering the late season rotation. This left Geno with a 5+3 rotation bonded in tremendous chemistry in the run-up to the tournament. Was this result merely an accident of those two injuries, or was a contraction to 5+3 inevitable for practical reasons? [USER=7171]@Huskee11[/USER] went to an open practice in March and observed that the top 7 or 8 players got the majority of the attention, and wondered if expanding the number of players getting full attention might require limiting or dispensing with the use of male practice players. Perhaps this merely reflects who was healthy at that moment. But it may also suggest a possible limitation to practice time. The one thing I’m confident of is that Geno devises his team based on the players he has, not according to a rigid system. Last season he had 8 fully healthy and developed players and figured out a path to get that group to an NC. Next season he may have a lot more fully healthy and developed players. My only question is whether he can take a 10 player (or more) rotation into March. Would he stop using male practice players to get all 10 sufficient attention in those late season practices? Building championship chemistry is a tricky business, and I’m only guessing at how one goes about it. I imagine we all are — unless Dawn or Kim posts under a pen name here. Geno’s small lineup surprised me last season, and I’m sure I’m not alone in this. I am ready to be surprised again this coming season. Changing game plans and lineups is one thing, devising a sustainable practice schedule for those lineups is another. What little I know of coaching comes from soccer, and some of the same issues arise there. Getting position players familiar enough with each other to pass crisply and at the right moment to avoid offsides calls is one point of similarity. Trusting each other to get to the right spot on defense is another. This takes time in practice, lots of it, and if injuries force late season substitutes, mistakes are inevitable and chemistry suffers as the level of mutual familiarity declines. One main difference between a good coach and a great one is devising a sustainable practice schedule and getting enough players to buy into its demands. I was not a [B]great[/B] coach. I don’t know if my experience maps neatly onto the sort of practical limitations Geno might face in his practice scheduling. But I suspect it might. Are these limitations enough to make a deeper rotation undesirable? I don’t know, but it’s a recurring thought. We all dream of the 5+5 (or more) rotation, me included. I’d love nothing more than to see Geno’s players run opposing teams off the floor night after night in March. I’m sure we’ll see exactly this [B]in the BE schedule[/B]. But can he really get them to be able to do it all the way to an NC? I sure hope so. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach