I will have 2 walk-ons this season and was definitely planning on redshirting my freshman PG.

Ideally, I'd want to have a rotation of 10 guys but I think I'll go for the rotation of 9. I feel pretty confident in the abilities of the guys I have.

Has anyone played a season rotating just 9 players? Did you run into huge problems? Even against uptempo I think these guys should be fine.

My Kentucky State team (Smith) is currently using 9 players.  We're 11-4, RPI 25 thus far

I am using a rotation of 9 at my CNU team right now. Its a young 9 at that with only 1 senior.  We will be a strong team all year (top 25 RPI).
A few years before that, I played 8 at CNU.  Went to the Sweet 16 and top 10 RPI.
I generally like to go with 10 or 11 though.
To play with 8 or 9, you really should avoid the FB and Press.  It is easiest with Zone defense but can be done with man as well (the d my CNU team plays).  
Rarely should you go uptempo with only 8 or 9 and generally I play slowdown with that depth but you can pick and choose spots.  

whats your offense and defense? that has a major bearing on how viable it is to run with less than 10 - especially your defense

Couple of seasons ago i did it running motion/man. I made it to the sweet sixteen, but thought I should have gone deeper.  I also had an injury to the only guy that could rebound on my team, so for about four games I had an eight man rotation.  Played slowdown every game

With press don't even think about it
With zone it's very doable
With man it can be done with the right 9 guys, but I think the difference between even a 9 and 10 man rotation is huge. One injury or guy in foul trouble and you're pretty much done against a good team.

I few seasons back I took a 9-man rotation to the elite eight in D3 Knight, where I lost to a team running a 9-man rotation; uncertain what he was running but believe it was flex/man.  My ninth guy was a nearly useless freshman; we played mostly normal tempo but slowdown against some deeper teams.  Obviously that's just a tiny sample but I have seen many, many others that make me think fatigue at D3 (which from your profile is what I assume you're talking about) is almost a non-issue right now.

Also if you're talking about Hood it looks like you'll be running a motion/man, which shouldn't be a problem IMHO.  As others have said, if you were fast-breaking and pressing it would be tougher.

I've won the D1 title in Tark twice running a nine man rotation (Duke and Texas A&M).  Three walk-ons with either team.  No seniors on the Duke team and only one on A&M.  You've just got to make sure that you manage your depth chart correctly and I would highly advise you NOT to run uptempo.  Nine man rotation plus speeding it up sounds to me look a certain recipe for disaster, especially if you have a younger team.  It can be done, but it's not easy, by any means.

**Edit**  Tri/Man with  Duke, Mot/Man with A&M.  As mentioned earlier, trying it with a FCP would probably be extremely difficult to pull off.

I've run 9 a couple times. not by choice. it can work, especially if you have good stamina and don't run the press.

I'm running a motion/man at Hood in D3.

I feel good about it... especially after your comments. I have 7 players good enough to start and 2 freshmen I promised 10 minutes each to. I think I'll redshirt the freshman pg for sure and play this season with the 9. Thanks!

I think you're going to have some bumps along the road with a 9 man rotation seeing as you only have 2 players with over 80 stamina (80, 85).  If you still have lots of room for stamina growth on your Hood team, you'll probably be all right after noncon.

Craig, if it's your Hood team you're talking about (and not an alternate ID team), I truly think running uptempo will put you deep in the hurt locker.  You're probably going to run into some depth issues due to foul problems since your defensive ratings aren't that good (truthfully, and I know this is harsh, but they are really quite bad.  Horrible might be a better word).  If you try to run uptempo, with those staminas, and those defensive ratings, you're going to probably find yourself on the wrong end of a whole lot of blowouts.  With that team, and those ratings, you should probably plan on running slowdown most of the time if you want to be successful (I think even normal might be pushing it, except against the really bad Sim teams).  Now, granted, it's your team and you coach it as you see fit, but that's just my two cents, take it for what it's worth.

***Edit**  Sorry, I misread your initial post.  I thought you said even "running" uptempo, when in fact, it was even "against" uptempo.  My apologies.***

dwoelflin is running a 7 man rotation this season at Miami in P and he is the #1 RPI, and SOS currently at 11-2 has beaten some of the best teams in Phelan this season and his two losses ar eon the road.

Posted by milwood on 5/1/2013 4:19:00 PM (view original):
Couple of seasons ago i did it running motion/man. I made it to the sweet sixteen, but thought I should have gone deeper.  I also had an injury to the only guy that could rebound on my team, so for about four games I had an eight man rotation.  Played slowdown every game

Glad to hear that you had some success with it. Question on slowdown... could I also use target minutes for the same purpose? You used slowdown to prevent fatigue to your players, yes? I could do the same thing managing target minutes.

Posted by craigaltonw on 5/2/2013 5:22:00 AM (view original):

Posted by milwood on 5/1/2013 4:19:00 PM (view original):
Couple of seasons ago i did it running motion/man. I made it to the sweet sixteen, but thought I should have gone deeper.  I also had an injury to the only guy that could rebound on my team, so for about four games I had an eight man rotation.  Played slowdown every game

Glad to hear that you had some success with it. Question on slowdown... could I also use target minutes for the same purpose? You used slowdown to prevent fatigue to your players, yes? I could do the same thing managing target minutes.

The problem with target minutes is that the logic can take out players with fouls early then play them until they are dog tired at the end of the game to try to get in the minutes.  If players stay out of foul trouble, then target minutes will be OK.

At Div-1, I have started playing with 9-10 players all the time and use 2-3 walkons every year to get a better quality of player.  It is a new strategy on my part and I don't know if I like it or not yet ... but what I have found is that you can usually play Normal on offense (and not Slowdown) and have guys not get too tired as long as you have 2 backup Guards and 2 Backup bigs.  I normally have 2 backup guards and list them both as a backup at SG and PG, then 2 backup Bigs, also both listed as backups at PF and C ... then I take those 4 backups and rate them at SF and put top 3 of that ranking as backup SF.