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Message: [QUOTE="Bone Dog, post: 5072886, member: 12088"] I go back and forth on this one. In the P3 conferences, the quality of opposition mainly builds up leading into March. But the Big East represents a curve with a shallower slope. All the teams have improved leading up to the conference championship, but they don't typically pose a serious challenge to UConn. Villanova two years ago was an exceptional year, and it was largely because of Maddie Siegrist. His practice of having a tough OOC schedule in November-December, then turning to an easier conference schedule, until a couple of really tough games in February, then returning to conference play has been his practice for quite a while. What sort of rotation does he want to have by the time he plays SC or Tennessee or ND? That's the most revealing moment for me. I suspect Dawn has tended to use the UConn game in a similar way, to test out the rotation that has begun to gel. I think Geno uses his conference schedule to sharpen his rotation, and while he often starts with something perhaps 10-deep, he usually ends with something more like 7 or 8-deep. This is also more or less what all the NC contenders end up doing. I think Dawn kept a deeper rotation last season than usual, which was impressive, and ominous for the rest of D1. The question each season is whether Geno uses his conference schedule to [B]deepen his rotation[/B] or to [B]sharpen a shorter rotation[/B]. I'd like to think he'll keep a deeper rotation this year. But I always hope for that, as do many others. But the fact is, by March he needs to know his starting 5 can give 30 excellent minutes if needed, and that the next 2 or 3 can give 15-20 really solid minutes. This may require shortening the rotation as the season wears on. But he also may need to know that the 9th or 10th player can give solid minutes in case of foul trouble for a starter. This is inherently a chancey speculation. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach