Why does Neal play?

[MsProudSooner]

I hope TN has some success next year so we don't have to endure another bash Tyler Neal yr.......

As I said in a previous post, some people would find someone to bash if we started 5 All-Americans.

 

[treebranch]

Don't take this personally because I normally love your posts, but unless you are at practice every day you really have no clue what is the best move for the team. Kruger is there every day so he knows what is best and what isn't and this is a time we just have to trust him.

Maybe Neal's been busting his butt in practice while other players have been horse playing? Maybe Neal does everything right off the court where others aren't? Lots of factors go into who plays and the general public doesn't know anything about those factors. Only the coach and team.

I fully submit this is a possibility, but I'm making my judgments based on the knowledge I have.

Neal didn't play at all against ISU. He played 3 minutes against TCU (when the whole team was deserving of a nice benching). He played 2 minutes against WVU. He hasn't played more than 3 minutes in over a month.

It looked to me like Kruger wanted everyone to get a taste of the environment. He subbed a lot early on, even taking Ro out within the first few minutes. It was a bizarre pattern. We haven't seen Neal and Cousins play that much in a really long time. If Pledger and those other guys were slacking off, that's one thing, but I can't know that. I think it was a mistake.

And yeah, Kruger has a lot more experience than I do, obviously. I'm sure he could explain his thinking, but I'm also sure he regrets some of the things he did over the course of the game. This should be one.

 

[StatGeek]

I fully submit this is a possibility, but I'm making my judgments based on the knowledge I have.

Neal didn't play at all against ISU. He played 3 minutes against TCU (when the whole team was deserving of a nice benching). He played 2 minutes against WVU. He hasn't played more than 3 minutes in over a month.

It looked to me like Kruger wanted everyone to get a taste of the environment. He subbed a lot early on, even taking Ro out within the first few minutes. It was a bizarre pattern. We haven't seen Neal and Cousins play that much in a really long time. If Pledger and those other guys were slacking off, that's one thing, but I can't know that. I think it was a mistake.

And yeah, Kruger has a lot more experience than I do, obviously. I'm sure he could explain his thinking, but I'm also sure he regrets some of the things he did over the course of the game. This should be one.

Replace the word should with could in your last sentence and you might have something.

 

[treebranch]

And to be fair, Pledger did come back in with his two fouls for the final couple of minutes.

Right! And that's part of my point, which is that it wasn't simply a matter of foul trouble. I think Coach Kruger thought this matchup lent itself to Neal playing more minutes than usual. Otherwise we would have seen Cam at the 3 or Grooms and Cousins on the floor at the same time.

I assume he thought Neal's length would bother Franklin and their guards or that we needed better rebounding. There are arguments for that. But saying it was simply a matter of foul trouble I don't think is right.