i don’t really have any problems with him, but i will offer this idea up (probably to only get shot down)…

we need our bench players to have more consistent minutes.

mitchell played a lot last night because he had a hot hand. i get that.

pepper is usually the 7th man. he hardly played at all and didn’t even get a shot. a lot less minutes than usual.

thoroughman usually 6th man got 0 minutes. (i know he’s been replaced by kilicli) he’s strictly on the team to beat up the other team, wear them down.

flowers played a lot of unfruitful minutes last night. a lot more minutes than usual.

these guys will never get consistently better if they don’t get to consistently play:

pepper should get 10 minutes a game regardless. i think a guy scored on him last night, and he was taken out for the rest of the game. we know he can shoot and he hustles on defense. he’s not going to become the offensive threat we need if he’s on the bench. he may have had a hot hand last night like mitchell (maybe better), but he never got a chance to play. i realize the guy he was guarding scored 2 points on him, but that’s 2 out of 82. one bad defensive play shouldn’t take him out of the rest of the game, especially when he’s a potent scorer and a hustler.

flowers shouldn’t see the floor (IMHO). i think that more times than not, he is a liability. he took some shots down the stretch that made me cringe. he’s not a scorer, but he heaves up some threes and some other shots that don’t make sense. and his free throw shooting last night (and every time he goes to the line) equals a waste of a possession.

kilicli should see the floor for 15 minutes a game (if he is indeed our new 6 man). he’ll never get to be tougher if he doesn’t get in there and figure out how to rebound and guard against a live opponent. yeah, he’ll get smoked some, but if he doesn’t get the game experience he needs, he’ll never get any better. and he has a nose for the bucket.

mitchell had a great game shooting last night. i agree with keeping him in the game when he was shooting so well. the problem is, every other game, he only gets in for about 2 minutes. he might actually be good enough to play for 10 minutes or so every game. some games, he throws up some horrendous shots that gets him planted on the bench very quickly. i don’t think that he’ll ever be a consistent shooter/scorer if he’s rewarded or punished based solely on how he shot his previous shot.

as i said at the beginning, i don’t really have a problem with huggins (just titled it so to get attention). i just really think our bench players need to play consistent minutes in order to be consistent. some games the bench has 0 points and some games they have many. i just think we need to allow them to mature individually by getting each player the individual minutes he needs. by allowing them to blossom individually, the team would be a little better.

and i know it’s tough to argue with the #4 team in the nation.

we are 0-3 against teams in the top 10, though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my recipe (for what it’s worth and i know it’s not worth much)
bryant 28 minutes
butler 32
ebanks 32
smith 28
jones 32
kilicli 12
pepper 10
mitchell 6
mazzulla 15
flowers/throughman the rest.

and yes, i realize that i have never been right on anything i have posted on here, so let me have it!!!!