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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4689751, member: 9844"] The way Geno used the bench can be interpreted many ways. My take is Geno preferred very tired players to using Ines, Amari and in some cases Ayanna. He would rather have an exhausted player in the core group than use those players. In Ayanna's case she had a clear path to significant minutes, because Dorka and Aaliyah were great, but a third big in a minimal rotation was up for grabs. She was also aided by Amari not matching expectations, and Aubrey being largely unavailable because she was needed more last year on the wing. Still there were a few games where Geno avoided using Ayanna and Amari like the plague, even though there were not any other viable third big options. That is a pretty serious lack of confidence in both of them. For Ines the expectations were much lower. She was pretty much an emergency last second recruit, where we had to take the best we could get after HS seniors had decided, portal transfers had made their decision, and we were also limited to foreign recruits that already had satisfied visa requirements, and likely had to make an immediate decision without even having time to visit the school. Under those circumstances Ines was a good get, and way better than the walk-on final alternative. My best guess is that if Geno thinks a fresh bench player is close to as good as a very tired player in a short rotation, then he will expand it. We have many candidates this year that could easily get the rotation to 9, 10, or even 11, but Geno's lack of faith in Ines, Amari and even Ayanna suggests they may be underdogs to get there. Throwing Ayanna into that class probably surprises many. Yes she disappointed, but the potential and effort are clearly there so we all hope for more. What is different this year is there could be as many as three players ahead of her that were not last year. On paper I suspect Ice and Jana could get more time. All three might have been considered roughly equal high level prospects in high school, but Ayanna fell short of expectations, and the other two may be better bets at this time. Although both are needed a little more at the 5 this year, one of them could potentially back up the 5 and the 4 and threaten Ayanna's minutes. In addition Aubrey off the bench would have time for significant minutes at the 4 and the 3. Further she proved in her first two years that she is a very good backup 4, so assuming we are not devastated with guard injuries, the backup 4 will need to be at least as good as the option of using Aubrey there, a much much higher bar for playing time than last year. Regardless I hope the rotation is very deep, and we can pursue a fast breaking pressing style as a result of that depth. [/QUOTE]

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