There's another side that you don't mention.
That theory would be justified if the game was 80 minutes long. It's not about a starting 5 in terms of the rotation, you dismiss completely the notion that game time minutes are extremely valuable.
The whole issue of platoons and its advantages and disadvantages was discussed in great detail during the 2014-15 season and afterwards. Sorry, but I'm not going to repeat each and every aspect in this thread, but I can assure you all these things have been discussed previously.
You make the spurious claim that a straight 5-for-5 platoons
"dismiss completely the notion that game time minutes are extremely valuable." That's completely bogus argument.
If anything it's the exact opposite. Platoons make it possible that when a squad comes in that they know they can play full out for the time that they're in, and in fact are expected to play that way without fear of fatigue. That encourages the squads to put full effort at all times they are on the court, which is bad news for the opposition. In other words the platoons if played correctly ensures that the MOST is made of the 40 minutes available, because players are going full out all the time.
Think of it, if a player knows he's coming out at around the 5:00 mark he knows he can go full out and will get his rest. Compare that to the player who enters the game having no idea if he's going to play 2 minutes or 18 minutes. In the latter case, a player is going to naturally start to pace himself, in case he needs to play an extended stretch.
Kentucky was dominant in the regular season platooning. There's no arguing that. But I believe Cal stopped because it's best to depend on certain players playing in different situations. Games tighten up in the tournament and it's totally different than the season. Cal just adjusted to that. I don't see the facts as you do.
Cal certainly adjusted to the idea of the games tightening up in the tournament. Only problem is that in doing so, he walked away from UK's main advantage (which was its depth and balance).
The problem is that when he ran into a team like Wisconsin, by trying to concentrate on his 'five best guys', he fell into a trap because Wisconsin's 'five best guys' were every bit as good as UK's. In the end it bit UK.
Look, I understand the argument that teams tighten their rotation in the tournament. And maybe 99.9% of the teams do that. But do you want to know something? >99.9% of the teams in the country didn't have the insane depth of talent and balance that the 2015 UK team had.
Go back to Wisconsin. If you go back and watch the game Wisconsin in the last 5 minutes of the game was gassed and ready to be blown off the floor. Only problem was that Cal had long abandoned his substitution pattern and himself was overly relying on a handful of players, who themselves were fatigued and were not in a position to take advantage.
It's all moot regardless. Cal isn't going to platoon. It caused damage in regards to recruiting and Cal will never allow that.
This is a ridiculous argument BTW. Opposing coaches will always negatively recruit against UK and Cal, regardless of the circumstances. That's nothing new and will not change. Did they negatively recruit against UK when UK was platooning? Sure they did. Will they negatively recruit against UK now that Cal has vowed not to platoon again? Of course they will.
One example: Have recruiters negatively recruited against UK because they took Skal Labissiere and he didn't play that well at UK? Of course they did. Does that mean Cal will stop recruiting highly rated players? Of course not. But according to your logic, maybe he should.
Calipari was somehow able to not only withstand but turn it to his advantage that the two players who shot the 4th and 5th most field goals in the 2012 team ended up as the #1 and #2 NBA draft picks. He can certainly turn the fact that guys like Trey Lyles and Devin Booker etc. played on platoons and have gone on to be successful in the NBA. If anything, the whole platoon idea fits perfectly in Cal's other philosophies such as attracting players who are selfless and team-first.
