I do think we will need more scoring this weekend and Westbrook has not been able to do it. If he told Caroline you will be playing the 30 minutes on Friday, I am very confident she can put up 20.
It isn't that simple or coaches would just play their starting 5 for 40 minutes. There are reasons to have subs. And fatigue is not always obvious. Maybe Paige closed out on shooters a fraction of a second slower and that enabled them to hit shots to keep NC State in the game. A well conditioned player could maybe play at 80-90% for 40 minutes. 90% of Paige looks really good. But, maybe, she could play full out for 30 minutes and, maybe, 10 minutes of Caroline at 100% is better than those same 10 minutes of Paige at 80 or whatever percent.
Geno said before the IU game that Caroline was going to have a bigger role. Then the game got underway, and things changed. And the coaches and players are the only ones that know what changed.
You obviously don't think like Geno does...
You obviously don't know me. I agree with what he does and how he does it the VAST majority of the time. He is the GOAT and it isn't close. I even like his rough edges that so many people find offensive. We come from similar backgrounds. I "get" him more than most people do. I would even use the word VAST again as in, the VAST majority of people. You have no idea.
I just wanna know if you have a Ferrari?
Yes. It was a childhood dream.
Stanford used their PG 40 minutes vs Louisville, 40 minutes vs South Carolina, and 40 minutes vs Arizona.
Caroline can be the 1st sub off the bench and we need offense this weekend.
I agree with you, but Nika and Westbrook provide little offense - Caroline could provide a lot.
Caroline was their best offensive player a month ago - not 8th —
The words "I don't get it" means the poster doesn't understand why this is happening, and I agree that this strategy or tendency is both a puzzle to me & is contrary to logic. Glad they mentioned this- after all, this is a discussion forum.
I agree again.
Great point
Just because you CAN play your top 5 for 38-40 minutes doesn't mean it is always optimal. The thing nearly everyone is missing is that fatigue doesn't take a player from being able to play 100% one second to being dead the next. Your performance slowly degrades or you have to throttle back on effort. 30 minutes of Christyn at 100% effort and 10 minutes of Caroline at 100% might just be better than Christyn at 80% for 40 minutes. Same with Azzi and Aliyah. Hell, even if each of them plays 5 minutes less and Caroline picks up those 15 minutes, I think we may still be better off. When effort gets throttled back, a lot of little bad things happen. Closeouts are slower, players get beat off the dribble, people stop cutting to stay open, players are slower to 50/50 balls, players stop boxing out and just ball watch. I could go on and on. In a close game, these are huge.
Don't even joke about such things!!!
Exactly. You shouldn't lose much by putting her out there and you gain a lot by keeping fresh legs on everyone else. Now, if she has slow starts off the bench, that is a real issue that needs to be solved or this is all moot.
I agree I doubt her playing time has anything to do with her head injury at this stage..She lost her starting job and now she has a tendency to turn the ball over
If match-ups are an issue this year won’t they be an issue next year too?
I'm not convinced she is turning the ball over any more now than she did when starting. As I said here somewhere previously, there is a big difference between looking at turnover stats and actually watching the individual play. For example, player A has the ball and sees player B begin a cut through the lane. Player A is adept at making those kinds of passes and leads Player B perfectly. Unfortunately, Player B slows down, stops, or changes direction. The pass sails out-of-bounds and Player A is charged with a turnover.
Its funny how people ignore Christyn's shooting percentage but harp on a couple misses by CD. I think last two games she is 2 for 5, not a big sample or slump. She also has one turnover. I recall her having some assists and steals. She makes things happen and her positive has always outweighed her negative when she is on the court.
