Q: Bill, I'm kind of curious, ideal world, how deep would you want the rotation to go, eight deep, nine deep, going into March?
A: Well, last year was seven. Last year was seven, and J Cole was our eighth, and maybe KJ got in the game as our ninth. And neither one of those guys are playing as much as our benches now, after the starting five. But we had two rocks off the bench, you had Remy and Mitch. I mean, those make a difference. If you could get comfortable with ...
I think eight's a great number. At Illinois, I played nine. The only reason I played nine in Illinois is because we played four big guys, and we told them all to be aggressive, and hopefully three of them will get two fouls the first half, so you have to sit them out, so nobody's mad at me at the end of the game because they foul too much. "Well, it's your fault. You got two fouls." But that was the only way that we could actually get four in the game, was through foul problems.
I actually had an opposing coach tell me one time, he said, "God dang, you tell those guys to foul on purpose, don't you?" And I said, "No, I don't." And he said, "Yeah, you tell them to foul on purpose so you can make them all happy, because they know they can't be mad at you because they foul too much." So that was the only way we'd get them in the game, because we had so many bigs.
This is obviously different, but seven would be a nice number. With eight to be an emergency, or a ninth to be emergency type. I shouldn't say that, I should say eight. Eight would probably be the best number. Because Joe, and two guards, and then one big, that'd probably be the best number. Anybody else?
A: Well, last year was seven. Last year was seven, and J Cole was our eighth, and maybe KJ got in the game as our ninth. And neither one of those guys are playing as much as our benches now, after the starting five. But we had two rocks off the bench, you had Remy and Mitch. I mean, those make a difference. If you could get comfortable with ...
I think eight's a great number. At Illinois, I played nine. The only reason I played nine in Illinois is because we played four big guys, and we told them all to be aggressive, and hopefully three of them will get two fouls the first half, so you have to sit them out, so nobody's mad at me at the end of the game because they foul too much. "Well, it's your fault. You got two fouls." But that was the only way that we could actually get four in the game, was through foul problems.
I actually had an opposing coach tell me one time, he said, "God dang, you tell those guys to foul on purpose, don't you?" And I said, "No, I don't." And he said, "Yeah, you tell them to foul on purpose so you can make them all happy, because they know they can't be mad at you because they foul too much." So that was the only way we'd get them in the game, because we had so many bigs.
This is obviously different, but seven would be a nice number. With eight to be an emergency, or a ninth to be emergency type. I shouldn't say that, I should say eight. Eight would probably be the best number. Because Joe, and two guards, and then one big, that'd probably be the best number. Anybody else?
