oldude
bamboo lover
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Geno has usually shortened his bench when the Big Dance rolls around. In 2015, UConn won their 10th championship with basically a 6-player rotation. In 2017, the undersized, undermanned, inexperienced Huskies made it all the way to the national semifinals playing primarily 5 players with limited help off the bench from Crystal & Nat. This season, UConn went 6 deep with MW available as a 7th player if need be. ND, the team that won it all, only went 6 deep with essentially no one else in reserve.
The success of UConn, ND and others begs the question, in WBB is a short bench an advantage? Obviously, there are minuses to having a short bench: injuries, fouls problems and fatigue. Let’s look at each:
Injuries – Clearly, injuries to key players can devastate a team, but not always. ND is a remarkable example of a team’s ability to overcome no less that 4 season ending knee injuries on their way to a national championship. There is also the example of SC winning it all last year. After AA Alaina Coates went down in the SEC tournament, SC shortened their rotation to 6-7 players. The lane opened up for Gray & Davis to attack the basket, Bianca-Cuevas moved to the 2-guard where she was more effective and the Gamecocks won their 1st national championship.
Foul problems – Here again, losing key players to fouls and not having them on the floor can be the difference in a close game, but there’s a lot less fouling in WBB than MBB, and most of the really good women’s teams avoid fouling a lot and seem to be able to manage a few minutes without a key player.
Fatigue – We’re talking about young athletes in great shape. For most of them, playing 40 minutes is a lot easier than a hard practice. One possible exception might be a big post player like Tiera McGowan. After playing all 45 minutes in the OT win over Louisville, she was not quite as sharp in her 38 minutes against ND in the finals, less than 48 hours later.
So what’s the advantage of a short bench? One word = EXECUTION! If you put the same 5 to 6 players on the floor with each other for 30 minutes or more every game, their execution at both ends of the court can be really, really good. I marveled at ND’s ability to make short, crisp passes in traffic throughout the FF as well as their sound team defense. While we could debate whether this year’s UConn team was better than last year’s team, IMO, the offensive execution last year was superior.
On the other end of the spectrum, my poster child for the problems resulting from a deep bench is Texas. This year, many of us, myself included, believed that TX would finally break Baylor’s stranglehold on the Big 12 while making it to the FF. The Longhorns did neither. It is worth noting that TX used 4 players in their guard rotation and 5-6 players in their frontcourt rotation regularly. While those 9-10 players were incredibly talented, at key times, the Longhorns offense would stagnate, and their defense would suffer inexplicable breakdowns.
If my theory is correct, then ND will be in trouble next year when all those injured players are back, along with the arrival of several talented freshmen. MM could struggle to manage minutes and develop the same crisp level of execution that characterized their championship run. At the same time, with the departures of Gabby, Kia and Z, UConn will once again be fielding a team without a lot of depth. I have to say, I kind of like the Huskies chances.
The success of UConn, ND and others begs the question, in WBB is a short bench an advantage? Obviously, there are minuses to having a short bench: injuries, fouls problems and fatigue. Let’s look at each:
Injuries – Clearly, injuries to key players can devastate a team, but not always. ND is a remarkable example of a team’s ability to overcome no less that 4 season ending knee injuries on their way to a national championship. There is also the example of SC winning it all last year. After AA Alaina Coates went down in the SEC tournament, SC shortened their rotation to 6-7 players. The lane opened up for Gray & Davis to attack the basket, Bianca-Cuevas moved to the 2-guard where she was more effective and the Gamecocks won their 1st national championship.
Foul problems – Here again, losing key players to fouls and not having them on the floor can be the difference in a close game, but there’s a lot less fouling in WBB than MBB, and most of the really good women’s teams avoid fouling a lot and seem to be able to manage a few minutes without a key player.
Fatigue – We’re talking about young athletes in great shape. For most of them, playing 40 minutes is a lot easier than a hard practice. One possible exception might be a big post player like Tiera McGowan. After playing all 45 minutes in the OT win over Louisville, she was not quite as sharp in her 38 minutes against ND in the finals, less than 48 hours later.
So what’s the advantage of a short bench? One word = EXECUTION! If you put the same 5 to 6 players on the floor with each other for 30 minutes or more every game, their execution at both ends of the court can be really, really good. I marveled at ND’s ability to make short, crisp passes in traffic throughout the FF as well as their sound team defense. While we could debate whether this year’s UConn team was better than last year’s team, IMO, the offensive execution last year was superior.
On the other end of the spectrum, my poster child for the problems resulting from a deep bench is Texas. This year, many of us, myself included, believed that TX would finally break Baylor’s stranglehold on the Big 12 while making it to the FF. The Longhorns did neither. It is worth noting that TX used 4 players in their guard rotation and 5-6 players in their frontcourt rotation regularly. While those 9-10 players were incredibly talented, at key times, the Longhorns offense would stagnate, and their defense would suffer inexplicable breakdowns.
If my theory is correct, then ND will be in trouble next year when all those injured players are back, along with the arrival of several talented freshmen. MM could struggle to manage minutes and develop the same crisp level of execution that characterized their championship run. At the same time, with the departures of Gabby, Kia and Z, UConn will once again be fielding a team without a lot of depth. I have to say, I kind of like the Huskies chances.
