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Message: [QUOTE="oldhusky, post: 4459665, member: 9844"] OK I will go into dangerous territory here, and I'm sure I will get plenty of disagreement, but by my definition Geno runs up the score all the time. In my opinion when the game is decided, the players that are out of the normal rotation should be in there, and generally with the reserves in the rotation, not the starters. We can all disagree over at what margin the game is over, but there are many games where Uconn is ahead by 30-40 points and the third stringers don't come in until there is only a couple of minutes left. Could he have put them in much much sooner without jeopardizing the outcome of the game? Of course but he doesn't. IMO there are quite a few games where the starters could sit the entire 4th quarter. It certainly appears that Geno would rather leave the starters in till very near the end and win by 40 instead of giving the bench more play much earlier and only win by 35 for example. I consider that to be running up the score. Having said that, there are a number of reasons why a coach might do that. Some of the statistical rating services probably take the margin of victory into account and winning by 40 instead of 35 helps that rating. Some star players that you recruit may not want to sit much of the 4th quarter of a blowout, I do think Geno wants to develop chemistry between the core rotation, and continuing to play them after the outcome has been decided adds to their experience together, but of course that strategy has the downside of not developing the end of the bench for when they may be needed for a significant role due to injuries. There are trade offs in many things including how playing time is administered, but if you look at the clock and the score, and the game is clearly over and your stars are still in the game, that is running up the score to me. [/QUOTE]

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