Lineup/Subtitutions

[BUfan14]

The players are the main problem obviously in terms of not playing well individually or meshing as a group. However I also feel like our substitution pattern isn’t helping. Whenever we get in a flow we sub people in and out so quickly that flow ends abruptly. I think players need to be in for longer stretches of time. Kent for example goes in for about 3 minutes and then comes out and he didn’t even do anything.

I also don’t love some of our lineups on the floor together. One of Ville, Mast, or Kent need to always be in in my opinion, as when they are not we have no shooters and out spacing is terrible. Nolan had a good game in SIU game one, but he is not consistent and his shot is mostly bad when he’s not having an on night. When 3-4 of Kingsby, Thomas, McAdoo, Nolan, Henry, Childs are on the floor we have no spacing. I love Eli, but he and Nolan seem like real black holes with the ball at times too.

All this to say, what would your rotations be to maximize this group? I’d say start East, Kent, Henry, Childs, Mast. Henry brings energy from the get go then. Ville seems better off the bench, so start Kent for shooting. Bench of Nolan, Ville, Hannah. Then you have a “scorer” in Nolan along with sparks in Ville and Hannah off the bench. And Eli and Nolan are mostly separate to keep offensive flow better until late in halves when you play the best five which is probably East, Nolan, Ville, Childs, Henry/Mast depending on who is playing well that night.

[Tommy]

Good question, BUfan14.
Hard to say with the way we're playing right now. I don't know if any lineup is the answer to our issues, but I would say that we can't afford to not have either Childs or Henry on the floor at all times. Seems like when they aren't, we really struggle, with a couple exceptions.

East is certainly someone we want in there as much as possible, though he needs to focus on his assist game much more than his shooting. Ville certainly needs to be in there quite a bit as well, as he hasn't hit his stride from 3's yet and we all know what he's capable of when he's done. Who would have thought Childs would be leading the team in 3 point percentage at this stage of the season?

I'd love to see Kent, Hannah, and even Linke getting some extensive playing time now to prepare them for the future, but that doesn't seem likely for Linke from the playing time he's gotten so far.

Not to loop back to my original point, but I don't think there is much lineup wise we can do to help us win games. We just aren't that good right now. That's why I'd like to see the younger guys getting some extensive playing time to prepare them for the future.

In the end, I trust Wardle and still have hope, though every loss drops it just a little bit more.

[bigjimmy]

We have talent, we just don't show it consistently enough. We also don't currently have 2 of our 5 best players in the 2 most important positions, (Offensively point guard, Defensively center), playing. Whatever the reason that East sat out the last 3 games he didn't look right the couple before so that could have been related. Hopefully both he and Boya are back soon. I do wish Hannah and Kent would get more consistent(there's that word again) playing time as they both make something happen when they are in there. The only consistent thing we do is be inconsistent and time is running out to correct that.