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Message: [QUOTE="Dogdeacon, post: 4268347, member: 1026"] Diggins PT - I generally agree with those positing that he shoulda played in Nov/Dec. But given that is SO obvious it can also be true that he simply didn't have the strength/skills & defensive fundamentals to play at a UConn level - that is certainly what we saw in the limited minutes he did play. Gaffney - He was very frustrating this year. A lot of it was poor decision making. He is very athletic, capable of spectacular plays yet not able to consistently make the 'right play' in games. So I posit that Gaffney turning the corner at some point in the year was deemed way more possible & probable than Diggins developing into a contributor in the short OR long term. Gaffney plays too fast due to nerves or some other in-game disconnect that leads to mistakes, but his athleticism was superior to his game performances and possibly he was better in drills/practices. So the most logical conclusion on "Why did Gaffney get the minutes?' is he had the better potential for 21-22 and 22-23. The knock is he could never earn more than the 5-10 minutes he played down the stretch of the season nor could he adequately hold down the fort during those 5-10 minutes, for 21-22 his style of play was uncorrectable. Now that 22-23 is also lost it seems like a bad limited upside bet on him vs the possible short-term pain but longer therefore higher upside of Diggins. The way the minutes were allocated & the performance the last 2 months of the season losing both became more and more possible. The short-term prioritization didn't work and the long-term was sacrificed for little benefit. Samson Johnson's season falls into a similar conundrum. Clearly the long-term even if its just 22-23 considerations argue for more burn for him. The only plausible excuse is that it is more customary for freshman big men to play sparingly and still develop into big-time college players (PG arguably the 2nd hardest position, yet great ones do play right away in college b/c typically the fundamentals are there). Regardless, Samson Johnson's minutes in 21-22 were under-allocated for the short-term with limited upside benefits of Whaley. Can see how this happens as Whaley and infinitely better defender, team guy and someone to reward for his hard work & loyalty. But in the end even though he played very well, rewarding Whaley didn't reap enough 21-22 benefits (ie. a flawed team exists, NMST dares Whaley to shoot) to offset delaying Samson's development. [/QUOTE]

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