re: Basketball Recruiting Thread: 6’8 G/F Elyjah Freeman commits!!!

Again, I think it is a double edged sword with our depth. Yes, it can help wear out opponents during the regular season, and it’s why we have had such a great regular season for the past 5-6 years for the most part. However, it’s also a hindrance when it comes down to the last couple of months and especially the NCAA tournament. Why do you think most of the teams who advance in the tournament don’t play 9-10 guys? It’s because that’s a terrible strategy for cohesiveness and chemistry among your best players. Yes, it’s good to have during the year, but you need to have 6-7 players that play 30-35 minutes a game during big games or they will play like we have coming down the stretch. I would much rather have 6-7 sure fire guys playing 30-35 minutes with each other than having 10-11 guys splitting between 15-25 minutes a game, especially when about 3-4 of those players shouldn’t be playing that much unless we’re in foul trouble or an injury. If things go as planned, and just by talent, I would have these 7 players playing the most minutes, in no particular order: Broome, Pegues, Denver, CBM, Kelly, Pettiford and Cardwell. Howard and Chaney would fight for the last few available minutes and Hudson and Moore are used for breathers or foul trouble or injury issues.

Agreed. They are able to go all out because they aren’t playing the whole game. How many teams did we smoke in the second halves last year? Maybe we should tighten it up down the stretch but no way I go away from playing a lot of guys. We should have more depth than ever this season. Use it.

I dont remember our inflated depth being all that much of an issue with Yale because we had already lost Liam, so once our shite talker got ejected, our depth was more so-so. At that point we had a couple backups that werent very good at PG, KD ( I dont feel like I have to disrespect his game because he played hard for us,) and then Jaylin which would completely disappear. So our depth then was not that much, and our issues with scoring became apparent.

Bruce's teams have had a greater number of role players than playmakers since we got off the scholarship reducement, so I hope we have more playmakers than the other way around. Like Jaylin was great if he was frontrunning, but not so much if we needed him to do something. Same for KD.

When I mean frontrunning I mean when our team is on an incredible run, everyone is playing with their heads on fire, our crowd is in it, and we are once again on a 3 against 1 fastbreak. At that point I like our odds anytime.

The ultimate litmus test is Randy ready to buy final four tickets?

We didn’t have early exits because we played too many people.

I don’t think I’m explaining my position very well over a forum, so I apologize, haha. Yes, it’s good to have depth, however, it’s better to have a core 6-7 players to get the majority of the minutes and playing at least 30 minutes a game to build that chemistry. I watch ALOT of basketball, you might describe me as a “sicko”, where I’ll stay up until 1 in the morning at times during the week to watch the Mountain West games. The common theme for most teams is that they play 6-7 really good players and especially like UCONN, who played really only around 7 guys but had such great chemistry because of that familiarity they had with each other playing together so much during the season.
Again, very rarely does any team have 10 guys that can legitimately play and are effective. There is no reason why Broome, Denver and CBM shouldn’t play at least 30 minutes a game (I picked them because they have proven themselves) . They don’t need to split time with Moore or Hudson or even Chaney. I’m really hoping he trims down the bench and plays a core group of guys. I think you’d see much better chemistry at the end of the games the last two months of the season compared to what we have been doing.

You make good points. Depth is great early during non-con and conference play, especially as/if injuries mount. But at the end of the day, your closing 5 are what matter. Success in the tournament is a lot about health and continuity, so naturally your minutes are constricting across the roster

Gaurd play has been tough at times the last few seasons for different reasons. Certainly part of the larger rotation of guys

How many minutes should cardwell and broome get together?

I think I’m gonna trust Bruce on his philosophy.

We were a nothing basketball school that is making final 4’s elite 8’s, multiple sec and tournament championships.

Hopefully we can eventually win a national championship but I don’t think that should be the measure of success for Auburn fricking basketball. If it happens that’s incredible. I’m just glad to finally have a good basketball program. One that has a chance every game that can compete for championships.

They also call too many damn fouls in the SEC. No way we could only play 7.