Not to keep this going, but the 9th man stuff is, ti me, just peak message board silliness for two reasons. First, we're just coming off a Final Four run, and we did not really use a 9th man. Do we think that hurt us? In what way? Do we think that playing Petro more in the regular season leads us to more win? To beating UConn in the FF?
Second, do we really think any team plans ahead for who it's 9th man is going to be and we dropped the ball? 9th is so far down the rotation I have a hard time beliving coaches are out here recruiting guys specifically for the 9th man role. So why are we so worried none of these players can fill those minutes? We don't even know what we have yet. The staff assembled a ton of freshman talent, how can we be so sure none of them can handle 10 mpg or so? 2 of the last 4 champions have had a freshmen as their 9th men, and one of those, Florida's, was a 3 star prospect rated (by 247) lower than Zens, Williams, and Brown and given the same rating as Landon Davis.
Second, do we really think any team plans ahead for who it's 9th man is going to be and we dropped the ball? 9th is so far down the rotation I have a hard time beliving coaches are out here recruiting guys specifically for the 9th man role. So why are we so worried none of these players can fill those minutes? We don't even know what we have yet. The staff assembled a ton of freshman talent, how can we be so sure none of them can handle 10 mpg or so? 2 of the last 4 champions have had a freshmen as their 9th men, and one of those, Florida's, was a 3 star prospect rated (by 247) lower than Zens, Williams, and Brown and given the same rating as Landon Davis.