Re: Line-up

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

> There is no way tonight's game 1 starting line-up has a prayer of working.  
> Was this some kind of sick experiment/joke by RP?
> 
> Cheaney starting at SG, with Walker at PF over Fort?  Please!

I don't think the starting lineup means anything in Pitino's mind during
the exhibition season, except perhaps as a way to boost the confidence of
certain players or reward them for working hard. Didn't he start Bruce
Bowen at point during the first offseason game two years ago? Maybe he
wants to test out how Fortson defends centers; maybe he wants to build
Cheaney's confidence. Anyways, it's probably meaningless in terms of 
predicting a starting lineup for the regular season.

The exhibition season has been very deceptive in past years. In Pitino's
first year, they looked positively awful, like a 15 win team, but came 
out stronger during the season. In his second year, they looked like they
had made a lot of progress by pasting Toronto twice, but in fact regressed.

I think that this year's team needs time to come together, with the 
integration of at least three new major contributors (Cheaney, Fortson,
Eric Williams) as well as some minor role players (Griffin, Turner).
Pitino has a system that is sufficiently complicated that it takes time
to learn and improve. This seaon, fortunately, there is going to be a 
lot of time - the rest of the exhibition season and practices throughout
the seaon.

Alex