This is where I think you and I look at basketball differently. I know you feel I’m overly negative about our play, even in games we win, but it’s because I know teams MUST improve over the course of a season.
When we simply overpowered some of those early games with our talent, I wanted to see them work a little more on some of their weaknesses, improve some of the structure in the offense, get some meaningful minutes for reserves, especially working in with the starters. See most don’t realize that the ‘empty the bench’ time doesn’t really help in developing depth. You don’t sub in 4 or 5 guys in one shot during the course of a game. Heiman, Nana, Harris and Thor don’t need to learn how to play together, they need to learn to play with the starters, and that might take more than 60 seconds.
When Palmer was driving and scoring on guys who were bouncing off him because he was just a much better athlete, that did little to prepare him to deal with the physical grind of the B1G, when guys aren’t bouncing off, and are actually quick enough to get in front of you. That’s when you work on knowing where and who to kick out to. That’s when you develop that timing that helps you reduce scoring droughts.
Miles is a great guy, but he concerns me when it comes to seeing how to develop a team that grows throughout the season. Sometimes I think he gets a little caught up in wanting the guys to have fun and like him...especially the stars, and it’s cost him control of the team at times.