on the original question - the bigs. i agree that starting kowalewski is objectively a little insane, if you are trying to win games (if you are playing young players for player development - that is totally legit, but then i assume you wouldn't be asking the question).

that said. i don't like your new starting lineup either. blake is a killer scorer, you want him doing as much as possible. ledoux is a quality scoring guard, and i think crouse can contribute a good bit offensively too. you aren't using him much but i think he can be a pretty quality mid level scorer. if you use him a bit more, with those 3, you have a good amount of offense. 1 scoring big is all you can really utilize. having both scoring bigs start feels like a waste. when you look at your backup line and the scoring there, i think it becomes a bit of a no brainer. you need more offense there, and have too much on the starting line. kind of an easy decision IMO. i do think calahan and langford will be able to do more for you by season end... i wouldn't be scared of using either of them a bit more.

i would start brazil with one of the other 2. honestly you should be starting him all regular season for growth purposes regardless. push his conditioning hard, thats the only real argument against starting him, his stamina. you can make your 3rd big your 2nd pf and 2nd c, over your 4th big, the crappy one. it makes very, very little difference in press, but it can't hurt, and maybe it will make you feel a tad better about benching one of them :)

This is helpful...thank you. I might just kill the redshirt even if he's a freshman.

Posted by sportstar6ms on 10/7/2020 11:43:00 PM (view original):
This is helpful...thank you. I might just kill the redshirt even if he's a freshman.

happy to help! its an extreme move - but sometimes its the way to go. i would probably evaluate any other options for managing your fatigue first - but if you basically don't think those are going to cut it - and you really want to optimize for this season, then the redshirt removal may be a good idea.

It's a great suggestion- I am trying to tweak the guard rotation, but also want to make sure my top guys play enough. We'll see how this works although I hope someone runs tempo on me in conference to test it out.

Personally I don't see too much value in removing the RS since you're lacking depth in your bigs and that guy is a guard. It will of course help your depth a little but he probably will only see valuable minutes if you get hit with foul trouble.

I've had good success with 11 man lineups w/ Press slowdown. But to be fair, my stamina was probably a little better.

I think it will allow me to shift Freeman to PF in an emergency with foul trouble.