Question from Zack Cziryak
Shaheen partially became famous in the tournament for going ten deep and having his guys play hard for as long as they could and then he would substitute with fresh legs. He tried to do that at the start of last season but they had some injuries, the rotations maybe didn't work out and he went away from it. Do you think he goes back to that or do you think he's learned that maybe at this level it doesn't work?
I think he still wants to play nine or ten guys. I think they're going to go ten deep. JaQuan Harris is hurt and probably won't play. Malachi Brown and Arda Ozdogan are probably just practice players, though I think Ozdogan will eventually help. So that leaves you with ten guys - I think he's going to play all ten. And that's okay to start the season with ten. Eventually you like to narrow that down some.
At St. Peter's, nobody played major minutes. That's not going to happen here. Richmond's going to play major minutes. So that's different. That's an adjustment. But regarding Holloway's practices - he practices guys hard. I'm not saying it's a reason why they're having injuries. I'm not saying he's practicing them into the ground, but I do think part of his learning curve is going to be....how hard can I push those guys and how deep into the season can I push them hard in practice?'
I'll give you an example ... that last year when St. Peter's made the NCAA tournament, his point guard Matt Lee had an ankle injury and missed a decent chunk of time in December and early January ... and St. Peter's survived that because they were deep and also it's the MAAC, so they were good enough to withstand the loss in that league. I don't think Seton Hall could withstand an injury to Richmond, or Dawes, or Davis. I think those three guys have to stay healthy. They can't afford to lose them. If they lose one of those guys, they might get rolled ... so does he have to do things differently when we get into December and January to make sure they stay healthy, that's something he's got to figure out ... It's knowing when to take your foot off the gas to preserve your roster. That's a coaching decision that is he's going to have to make and the stakes are high with those three guys.
