tribecalledquest wrote:goramblers2011 wrote:But in this situation, Loyola wouldn't easing up because they are trying to avoid someone. They'd be easing up/resting players because they'd already be locked in as a 4/5 seed. If UNI loses, Loyola really has nothing to play for except finishing .500 in conference which would just be a inconsequential feather in the cap. I guess same goes for SIU. Maybe both teams will rest all their key players and we will see SIU bench vs LUC bench and then the real game takes place next Friday.
If any coach/team goes easy and doesn't have a three or more game lead in the league then I would question everything they do. How would taking it easy be good for anyone in Loyola's situation?
I don't necessarily endorses it. But to preserve health of your starting 5 who've had a lot of minutes pile up. I'd prefer to keep Milts minutes closer to 25-30 than 40. Especially cuz if we ride our guys and one of them gets hurt it becomes "should they have even been playing this long/at all etc etc."
Keep in mind Chicagos the town where rest comes up with our pro sports. Derrick Rose first tore his ACL at the end of a game that was already won, Chapman not getting rest before game 7 of the World Series was a huge talking point.... it's hard for me not to think about stuff like that.
Then there's the X's and O's. Do you really wanna show your hand to SIU right before the matchup? Or do you save some for the next game. That's something SIU likely would ponder as well. After the first LU WSU game Marshall mentioned he saved some defenseive sets against the pick and roll for the second game against LU. Part of the larger game of what do you show and what do you not. All semantics at this point since we're not with the coaches.
I always want my team to play to win. But it's a fun point to ponder nonetheless.