Short answer is there are only so many minutes to go around.
Podz is fighting for minutes against a five year starter, another player who has been with BU since he’s been here and who he often calls the glue, a third who is the leading 3-point shooter in the conference, and, finally, the conference’s reigning sixth man of the year award. As to why he gets pulled quickly when he makes a mistake and others don’t, BU has developed a trust with the other players that he doesn’t yet have with Podz. So the others are going to have a much longer leash based upon BU having been in the trenches with them before. In Plummer’s case, though BU hasn’t been coaching him that long, he’s an upperclassman with a unique, highly evolved skill.
All of this has been communicated to Podz, and at least on some level he understands it. Does he like it? I hope not and hope he’s working his butt off to change it. And from what I see and hear that is what he’s doing. Next year, 3 of those obstacles to playing time will be gone, and Podz will be one of the guys who has made deposits into BU’s “trust account.” If Podz decides that isn’t good enough and moves on after this year, a lot of people will be disappointed (including me) because he seems to have a strong skill set and the temperament to be a very good player with Illini in the future.
BU is and should be concentrating on winning games. I’m sure he and the staff are working with Podz and other players on their development throughout the season. In Podz’s case, because of the roster most of his development is happening outside of games. But I’m curious. If you believe lack of playing time will cause him to leave, what is the magic minutes threshold where that won’t happen 2 minutes a game? 5 minutes? 8 or 12 or 15 minutes?
One final thing I’ll say is that I think Curbelo’s injury issues and his inability to practice and play as much as normal this year might be negatively impacting Podz’s playing time to some extent. BU is still trying to get this team to play consistent and at the expected level throughout the entire game. That takes time on the court for the main players during games. It also means that the margin for error for winning games is slimmer, leading BU to play the guards more and leaving scant minutes for Podz right now.