Cal with the nearly annual "Wooden told me I can only play 6" quote. What's it mean for this team?

[Aike]

Don't know how many times this needs to be debunked but UK continued to platoon (albeit in a different way and for not as long) even after Poythress' injury, and they continued to be successful when they did. The few times he abandoned platoons completely they struggled and nearly lost (to Ole Miss and Texas A&M). Although it became increasingly difficult to see Cal's substitution pattern the later in the season, it was clear that the more UK went away from platoons, the less effective they played.

Not sure what you mean by “debunk.”

Prior to Poythress getting hurt, Cal was platooning 5 in 5 out.

The immediate next game, we only played 9 guys.

Then we demolished UCLA, and everybody played.

Then we played 9 guys again vs. UL.

So you can argue effectiveness and tactics all you want, but I don’t believe it’s a misnomer to say that the platoon died when Poythress got hurt. Maybe it was completely buried at a later date.

 

[Poetax]

I agree. Cal has had 1/4 of the season to experiment. From here on we need our best guys on the floor. Not only OSU and UL coming up, but 10 of last 19 are true road games something this team won’t get a taste of until January 7th.

Alex may have been our best defensive player, I think that showed up in the Wisconsin game.

 

[JonathanW]

I guess he forgot that the platooning 2015 team was blowing opponents into the next time zone until he went to a smaller rotation.

We left the platoon and went to the smaller rotation as a result of the Poythress injury.

What made that platoon work so well is that the difference from the best player and the 9th was small (Towns and Lyles).

 

[JPScott]

Not sure what you mean by “debunk.”

Prior to Poythress getting hurt, Cal was platooning 5 in 5 out.

The immediate next game, we only played 9 guys.

Then we demolished UCLA, and everybody played.

Then we played 9 guys again vs. UL.

So you can argue effectiveness and tactics all you want, but I don’t believe it’s a misnomer to say that the platoon died when Poythress got hurt. Maybe it was completely buried at a later date.

I believe it is a misnomer and misleading. If you want to define platooning as strictly 5-for-5 at all times then that's your perogative but there's ways to maintain the basic concept of the platoon substitution patterns which were indeed used after Poythress went down.

For example he at times used Dominique Hawkins to maintain 5-for-5. At other times, he allowed one player from one unit to leak over with the other unit but kept the cores intact. Other times he would substitute the front-court players or the back-court players together. Other times he started substituting in groups but then later in the game went to individualized substitution.

In other words in my mind at least it's not on or off, there's a huge range of different means and strategies in substituting which can change over the course of the game. Some of those substitution patterns more closely approximate a platoon style, while others clearly veer off that.

My only point is that after Poythress went down there wasn't suddenly a stoppage of platooning concepts. Platooning largely remained in some form or another for 10-15 games after Poythress went down (with a few exceptions) although during that time it started to morph into other things as well so it became harder to characterize, and harder to ascertain what was effective and what was not as well.

The last third of the season was more traditional in the way Calipari substitutes (i.e. largely individually), although even then he often started the game with at least a few rotations of platooning. Predictably, UK's effectiveness dropped throughout the season (especially defensively) and the team started to look more like a typical (but still very good) Calipari team, instead of the off-the-chart effectiveness the team was playing at earlier in the season.

 

[JPScott]

BTW, this discussion reminds me of something Pat Bradley recently said about Calipari liking to shorten his rotation late in the season. What I'd like to do is to somehow quantify this and test it out season-by-season and compare to other UK coaches.

The thing I'm struggling with is how to best calculate a number on a game-by-game basis for how big 'the rotation' was. I.e. what is the cut-off between a player who's part of the rotation and who's not. Is it 20 minutes, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes? (or % of time on the court which I prefer because it includes overtime games as well.) Or are there multiple cut-offs, and if so, how is each level counted?

FYI, for each team I do provide a chart showing the % of time each player is on the court, and this gives some indication of how shallow or deep the bench was used, although this can be skewed when a player doesn't play part of the season (due to ineligibility or transferring) or is injured.

For example last season's chart looks like this:

where Quade Green is skewed low because he left early in the season.

 

[yoshukai]

From what I've seen Brooks has a mucher higher ceiling and motor than EJ. Time for EJ to start playing like he cares or hit the pine.

He's definitely one of the softest players we've had under Cal .

 

[Usmcincy]

I guess he forgot that the platooning 2015 team was blowing opponents into the next time zone until he went to a smaller rotation.

While poythress wasn’t hurt

 

[yoshukai]

It's easy to play six when you have Kareem, Walton, and so on.

Yeah , when your sixth man is better than the opponents best player a lot of strategies work , lol .

 

[shutzhund]

How many teams do you think would be favored against us right now?

5-6

 

[TheBlueMax]

This was from the post-game transcript yesterday. I've underlined the parts that seem important to me:

"Q. I know you talked about what you saw from Hagans, but with Immanuel Quickley, how impressed were you to see him have another career high in scoring?
COACH CALIPARI: No, how did you guys — did you know I started three guards? Did you guys even notice that? Erik told you? (Laughter.)

So, I went with that lineup. Now, the problem is it may push Johnny and Kahlil a little bit back and I don’t want to do that, which is why I wasn’t starting him early. But if those three deserve to play together, it is what it is. What, am I going to cheat one of those guys because I’m trying to get — no, like, Coach Wooden called me in 2010. He was talking about my team. I called him. And I said, Coach, are you watching my team. And he said, yeah. Tell me what you think. We’re not an execution team. This is my 2010 team.
He's trying to motivate guys in the number 7 and 8 spots. Work harder in practice, make individual improvements, be a team player, and prove you deserve time on the floor.
He said, you’re not an execution team because you try to play nine guys. I played six. And you either earn the right to play in practice or you didn’t play. And the other guy did. That was from Coach Wooden. That’s what he said to me. You’re playing nine. You’re never really going to be a great team.

And he said, but times have changed and I understand why you’re doing it. You’re trying to bring everybody along. Kids transfer. They didn’t with us. They were there. I had guys had to sit three years, in their fourth year become an NBA player. It’s changed. And he’s right.

The best teams I’ve coached I’ve played five and six guys. This team I’m hoping I can play nine."

So, let's unpack that a little bit for this year.

1. You want an answer as to why Whitney played 7 minutes yesterday (and Juzang 4), there you go. Starting 3 guards necessarily means less time for Whitney and Juzang both, according to the way Cal views it.
2. Earlier in the interview, he said "But, look, at the end of the day, we need to get Nate back." So Sestina is in the rotation, whether that's 6, 9 or whatever.
3. Calipari is being pretty precise with his numbers - he said, I hope to play 9. Not 9 or 10. That just confirms what has been obvious for a while - Dontaie Allen won't be in the mix this year.
4. If he really means it, then we're looking at a rotation of Hagans, Quickley, Maxey, Nich, EJ, Sestina and Brooks. Which leaves Whitney and Juzang on the outside.
5. My instinct is we need Whitney to come on to a real extent to go very far in March, and Juzang's shooting would be nice to have as well. But then I'm reminded of the dice-roll-nature of the tournament, so who knows.
6. He has said repeatedly 2010 "was not an execution team." Which is odd for a coach who just rolls the balls out, you'd think all of his teams would fit that description. heh

In the end, this may be one of those times when we can't tell if Cal really means what he's saying or is using it to get a point across to his team (specifically Juzang and Whitney). This Wooden quote, which I swear he's referenced at least 8 times in his 11 years here, may just be an extended explanation of the "the bench is a coach's best friend" thing. I really can't remember a year when he had a long bench and ended up going with 6, even though he surely brought this Wooden quote up.....He goes with 6 or 7 when he has to, when that's all the players he's got (e.g., '12).