If tonight's game (all 40 minutes) showed anything about the Brad offense and defense, its that his approach is all (100%) about match ups. The reason Jake is starting is to force the opposition to prepare for him both offensively and defensively. It forces the oppositon to guard Jake on the perimeter and he guards well.
There are 56 potential match ups when both teams play 8 players and what we do better than our opponents is prepare for them and then identify the best match ups with the different combinations on the floor. That is why Andrej never comes off the bench alone. That forces whomever we play to make a minimum 2 switches (which they may or may not have practiced) on both offense and defense.
Where this team has matured is their ability to both read and recognize the mismatches and then exploit them. Andrej actually guarded Stirtz quite a bit tonight. We scored on seven consecutive possessions in the second half. Why? Because Keaton, Mirk and Bam saw the mismatches. Overload the strong side on the perimeter and hit Andrej in the weakside corner and he drives to the hoop agains one defender. 2 possessions later same set same short pass and Z runs the baseline from the strong side and is open for the dunk. It was clinical basketball, not based on who started but who was in the game and reading the match ups.
We're in the final four - and I don't care whom of the 8 players starts. As I noted in several other posts this year, our starters are normally not the 5 that finish the game. Who finishes for us is based on who has performed in the best match ups with the players on the floor. I hope we can all agree that in basketball its not about who starts, but who finishes the game.
If Andrej coming off the bench creates more mismatches than him starting, let him come off the bench. I am more focused on winning the national championship than who has "earned" the right to start. The is a TEAM - not 5 starters and 3 role players.
