Depth & Rotation Will Be Key Down The Stretch
By the time the final horn sounded from Tuesday's 82-54 win over Morehouse, a grand total of 13 Yellow Jackets had seen the floor. Aside from sophomore shooting guard Michael Devoe (foot injury) & sophomore forward Kristian Sjolund (redshirt), all scholarship players saw game action against the Maroon Tigers, with junior guard Malachi Rice being the only walk on to not receive any playing time.
While going this deep into the bench is not particularly feasible with Georgia Tech resuming conference play this weekend against Notre Dame, utilizing the bench and adjusting the player rotations as a result will play a key role as the Yellow Jackets close out the 2020 regular season.
Fortunately for head coach Josh Pastner, he believes his team is better set up for this time of the season than they have been in years past. There were points in previous seasons where losing a player such as center Ben Lammers would decimate the team's efficiency, but Pastner believes the depth of this year's squad allows him to be in a better place when dealing with injuries.
While he has admitted that his team is not quite equipped to lose a floor general like junior point guard Jose Alvarado, their depth is slowly but surely improving. He has placed an emphasis on it, stating that it is one of the final steps his program needs to take to ascend to championship level.
And his players are certainly working on helping out the cause. Over the past two games with leading scorer Michael Devoe out, sophomore forward Khalid Moore gave meaningful minutes with his "energy and defensive hustle" while back in the starting role. Also during that 2 game stretch, junior forward Evan Cole is becoming better at playing in space and has averaged 9 points and 6 rebounds.
Enhanced play from the bench will also make it easier from a coaching perspective. This season, Pastner has regularly played only 7 players in any given game throughout the season. The lack of bench utilization has resulted in the majority starters playing a high minute total, which in turn could be a factor as to why Tech has struggled to close out games.
In the case with NC State, Pastner actually went deeper into his bench. Even with Devoe out, he played a total of eight players and included Shembari Philips into the fray for a couple minutes. Combined with increasing Evan Cole's minutes and allowing senior center James Banks III more time to cool off, it allowed Banks III to be more competitive against NC State's DJ Funderburk and was a key component in the win.
Examples such as these will play pivotal roles in the outcomes of the remaining games on the schedule. If Pastner can better utilize the rotations & bench players and if bench players can capitalize on their playing time like they have as of late, a run at the NCAA tournament could indeed be feasible.
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