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[QUOTE="IthacaMatt, post: 3623006, member: 405"]
Not to be a dead horse, but the John Wooden UCLA teams - arguably greatest teams ever - used to press all game long and play a deep bench, much like Rick Pitino has done at all of his stops, to great effect.  People can win either way, there can be no argument about that.

But what Boeheim is doing these last several years,  is going ever shorter with his early season rotations, because our best talent is not elite anymore.  This results in injuries almost every season, and has failed to win 20 games for most of the last several years.  He feels he has to do this, because so many of these pre-season games are not "automatic" wins anymore, and he has spent too many seasons on the bubble to not realize that losing too many of these early games in the interest of player development might land you in the NIT,

Playing only 6 or 7 guys in most games is not sustainable all season long; that's the point.  Even when he had Derrick Coleman and Billy Owens, he still played the rest of the roster until January.  It did ensure player development and consistent results from one season to the next when those guys like Coleman and Owens moved on.

And of course shortening the rotation makes for more cohesive play down the stretch of the season and in the post-season. Coach K does it, and who can argue with his NCAA record?  But you just can't do it for the whole damn season.  The results are right there for everyone to see.
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