Starting SF: Williams or McCarty

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

In the Boston Herald, it is reported that Pitino is trying to decide
between Eric Williams and Walter McCarty as the starting small forward.
So it looks like Antoine won't be moving to small forward, at least 
for the time being. That leaves Potapenko, Battie, Fortson (and Ellison
if healthy) sharing minutes at center and backup power forward. If 
Antoine plays as much as he has in the past, that's about 60 minutes
for these three players. That doesn't seem like a lot; but perhaps it
would work out because of the new rules which might keep our big men
in foul trouble. Maybe Antoine will be spending some time at small
forward in addition to starting at power forward, which would ease
the minutes crunch at the power positions.

Last year, Battie averaged 22.4 minutes; Potapenko averaged 27.9; and
Fortson averaged 28.3 minutes.

I suppose if Walker played small forward, there would be a crunch for 
minutes there as well with three players vying for 48 minutes; so far,
Williams and McCarty have both played well in the preseason and seem
to deserve spots in the rotation.

We should be getting a better idea of what the rotation will look like
in the upcoming games. In the meantime, I would guess:

PG: Anderson 30. Barros 18.
SG: Pierce 30. Cheaney 18.
SF: Williams 20. McCarty 20. Walker 8.
PF: Walker 28. Fortson 10. Battie 10.
C:  Potapenko 24. Battie 12. Fortson 12.

Turner could very well break into the rotation depending on the 
performance of Anderson and Barros. The roles of Fortson and Battie
may switch; it'll depend on who ends up being able to guard centers
better, and who has better synergy with Walker or Potapenko. I hope
that this is why Vitaly hasn't seen much playing time, because
Pitino wants to find out who can better handle backup C duties.
Pierce could end up playing more minutes too, depending on whether
Cheaney ever regains his game. Maybe Cheaney just needs to have 
offensive sets designed for him in order to be effective, because
he just doesn't seem aggressive enough.

Alex