re: playing favorites

[peter delevett <pdelevett@amcity.com>]

I think you raise some good points here. Pitino just does not seem to be one
of those coaches who'll "ride" the hot player, or try different things if Plan
A isn't working (eg not posting up Pierce more often, as someone else
suggested). My boss (a Kentucky native) and I were talking about this
yesterday in the context of the Wildcats' loss in the NCAA tourney: Heshimu
Evans came out of the gate on fire, scored something like the team's first 9
points and had 12 midway through the first half, but didn't score again the
rest of the way. My boss commented, "It's this Pitino and Tubby Smith thing.
Everybody gets the same number of minutes regardless of whether they're hot or cold."

>"gil moreno" <kuya_g@hotmail.com> wrote:

>I do not understand what Rick Pitino is up to.  Walker misses his first 
>11 shots enroute to scoring just 6 points, and yet he see's 43 minutes 
>of action.  Same story for Pierce except he didn't exactly miss 11 
>straight.  He still missed a lot.  These two "stars" did not deserve to 
>play that many minutes.  They did more harm than good so why not give 
>the others a chance to touch the ball.  If there was anyone who deserved 
>to play 40+ minutes it was Tony Battie.  10 pts., 11 boards, 7 blocks.  
>I would start him the next time out.  VP deserved more touches.  As one 
>of the earlier posts stated, no one on the Bulls roster could have 
>handled him in the paint.  Greg Minor (although I'm not really fond of 
>his game) deserved to get more minutes since Walker and Pierce could not 
>get the job done. I could go on and on but what use will it be.