Only in the World of Jimmy.....

[newmexicuse]

Two games ago we had a 7 1/2 man rotation. Our 1/2 man is a big who is a strong rebounder. We then lose one of our bigs. We are playing the best rebounding team we will face all year. We are getting slammed on the boards.

So what does Jimmy do ? He tightens up the rotation by going small, and he gets away with it !!!!

Frankly, when BMK went down, I would have expected a bigger role for Roberson, not a smaller role.

Makes no sense to me, but miracle play or not, it worked.

 

[longislandcuse]

I think G is starting to show that he belongs as a major contributor on a National Championship caliber team.

More to do with the versatility of G and Grant than it does with Roberson.

There wasn't really a reason to play Roberson last night. Putting G at the 1,2 and 3 was able to give everyone plenty of rest.

 

[Waltdods]

Two games ago we had a 7 1/2 man rotation. Our 1/2 man is a big who is a strong rebounder. We then lose one of our bigs. We are playing the best rebounding team we will face all year. We are getting slammed on the boards.

So what does Jimmy do ? He tightens up the rotation by going small, and he gets away with it !!!!

Frankly, when BMK went down, I would have expected a bigger role for Roberson, not a smaller role.

Makes no sense to me, but miracle play or not, it worked.

I have two not necessarily inconsistent theories on what was going on here.

Theory 1 - Gbinje first came in to give the guards a rest (which is definitely true). He did so well there that Boeheim decided to keep him in there rather than going with Roberson when it came time to rest the bigs.

Theory 2 - Playing G rather than Roberson is a sign Boeheim expects Keita back soonish. Boeheim is obviously the king of tight rotations, but I think 6 is too tight for him (he said recently he was trying to get up to 8, and definitely has been playing Roberson more until yesterday). But 7 is right in his comfort zone. If Keita's back in the next couple weeks, I think it's pretty clear that's where we're ending up.

 

[jdubs30]

I think if NC State or BC was last night instead of @Pitt, we absolutely wold have seen Roberson. Silent G was productive in the first half so JB kept him in.

 

[OttoMets]

I think G is starting to show that he belongs as a major contributor on a National Championship caliber team.

More to do with the versatility of G and Grant than it does with Roberson.

There wasn't really a reason to play Roberson last night. Putting G at the 1,2 and 3 was able to give everyone plenty of rest.

I mean, my reason was that Grant was an offensive non-factor for 40 minutes last night and C.J. was for ~35 and both of them got caught standing and watching Pitt players grab offensive boards pretty frequently. If there was ever a situation where those guys earned a brief seat, it was last night.

On the other hand, Pitt's offensive discipline and execution is terrific. I'll speculate that Boeheim felt that Roberson, while capable on defense in most games, would be in over his head due to Pitt's precise ball movement. That'd be a reasonable justification for holding him out.

 

[longislandcuse]

I mean, my reason was that Grant was an offensive non-factor for 40 minutes last night and C.J. was for ~35 and both of them got caught standing and watching Pitt players grab offensive boards pretty frequently. If there was ever a situation where those guys earned a brief seat, it was last night.

On the other hand, Pitt's offensive discipline and execution is terrific. I'll speculate that Boeheim felt that Roberson, while capable on defense in most games, would be in over his head due to Pitt's precise ball movement. That'd be a reasonable justification for holding him out.

This is true. Roberson comes in with a reputation for being a monster on the glass but I think he might have been over his head last night. Not by any fault of his, he missed time and hasn't played much. Cuse/Pitt is an absolute war every time. It's not a game to be experimenting in.

 

[texascpa]

Two games ago we had a 7 1/2 man rotation. Our 1/2 man is a big who is a strong rebounder. We then lose one of our bigs. We are playing the best rebounding team we will face all year. We are getting slammed on the boards.

So what does Jimmy do ? He tightens up the rotation by going small, and he gets away with it !!!!

Frankly, when BMK went down, I would have expected a bigger role for Roberson, not a smaller role.

Makes no sense to me, but miracle play or not, it worked.

Sometimes you have to play to your game not another's. JB must have figured rebounding was an area they were not going to be able to compete no matter who he put in, so instead he would rely on experience and the best offense he could muster.

 

[OrOrange44]

I do not understand the constant harping about using the bench
JB is a fierce competitor and coaches to win

I am sure if he thought Roberson or anyone else on the bench could help win they would be in there
He sees them play all the time at practice and knows who is ready and who is not
JB is going to do everything he can to get W's

Now lets kick some wolfpack ass

OO44

 

[rocklloyd]

Lots of long clock stoppages. Jimmy knew what he was doing with the bigs

 

[jordoo]

I have two not necessarily inconsistent theories on what was going on here.

Theory 1 - Gbinje first came in to give the guards a rest (which is definitely true). He did so well there that Boeheim decided to keep him in there rather than going with Roberson when it came time to rest the bigs.

Theory 2 - Playing G rather than Roberson is a sign Boeheim expects Keita back soonish. Boeheim is obviously the king of tight rotations, but I think 6 is too tight for him (he said recently he was trying to get up to 8, and definitely has been playing Roberson more until yesterday). But 7 is right in his comfort zone. If Keita's back in the next couple weeks, I think it's pretty clear that's where we're ending up.

1 would make sense except JB also seemed he didn't want to play TylerR against Pitt the first time either. For whatever reason he has seen something that tells him TylerR will struggle against Pitt's style which isn't all that surprising considering all our guys seem to. I really think its more of a Pitt thing with a little bit of your 2nd theorybecasue as you say he has been trying to work TylerR in.

 

[br801]

Two games ago we had a 7 1/2 man rotation. Our 1/2 man is a big who is a strong rebounder. We then lose one of our bigs. We are playing the best rebounding team we will face all year. We are getting slammed on the boards.

So what does Jimmy do ? He tightens up the rotation by going small, and he gets away with it !!!!

Frankly, when BMK went down, I would have expected a bigger role for Roberson, not a smaller role.

Makes no sense to me, but miracle play or not, it worked.

What you saw last night wasn't necessarily JB's plan for every game BMK is unavailable. In a tight, physical game in which SU was trailing most of the way, he went with the guys he trusted most in the moment. That's what he does. And how that translates into minutes in the box score varies game to game.

Stay tuned. I'm confident Roberson will ultimately play a bigger role. It wasn't too long ago some were burying our third guard...

 

[newmexicuse]

I think G is starting to show that he belongs as a major contributor on a National Championship caliber team.

More to do with the versatility of G and Grant than it does with Roberson.

There wasn't really a reason to play Roberson last night. Putting G at the 1,2 and 3 was able to give everyone plenty of rest.

Disagree, the reason to play Roberson was that we were getting hammered on the glass. Truthfully, had we lost, I would here today criticizing Jimmy for not going bigger. I was thinking to myself all game that we needed to neutralize them in rebounding. We never quite got to neutralization, but we did play them tougher as the game progressed. We ended up -11 on the glass, but I think about half of that came in the first four minutes.

 

[Waltdods]

1 would make sense except JB also seemed he didn't want to play TylerR against Pitt the first time either. For whatever reason he has seen something that tells him TylerR will struggle against Pitt's style which isn't all that surprising considering all our guys seem to. I really think its more of a Pitt thing with a little bit of your 2nd theorybecasue as you say he has been trying to work TylerR in.

Good point. The last game Roberson didn't play in before yesterday - was Pitt. So maybe I'm overthinking things.

Fortunately, we'll get to test all these theories soon enough.

 

[cpatrocks]

I hope BMK didn't re-injure his knee celebrating last night.

 

[jordoo]

Good point. The last game Roberson didn't play in before yesterday - was Pitt. So maybe I'm overthinking things.

Fortunately, we'll get to test all these theories soon enough.

Yep I'm hoping we see much more of TylerR against NCst and that G still gets big minutes. Even if we get into the tourney with everyone healthy and we can play all the starters 35min with no problems its nice to know that TylerR, MikeG and Baye can play extended minutes and perform well if needed.