Markus minutes....40

[Cheeks]

Wojo has used him for 40 minutes, coming off games of 39, 39, 38 if I recall.  Getting to that point in the season, but would be nice to be able to give these guys a break.

[tower912]

8 days off. 

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I don’t think cumulative minutes are a worry in college basketball outside of the conference tourney. Two games a week isn’t much of a problem. As long as they can keep going within the game without tiring its good.

[Galway Eagle]

Wojo discussed this in the postgame

[We R Final Four]

Wojo has used him for 40 minutes, coming off games of 39, 39, 38 if I recall.  Getting to that point in the season, but would be nice to be able to give these guys a break.

Wasn’t this his first game in 8 days?

[cheebs09]

I don’t think cumulative minutes are a worry in college basketball outside of the conference tourney. Two games a week isn’t much of a problem. As long as they can keep going within the game without tiring its good.

Yea. They probably work harder for longer in practice.

[tower912]

Ordinarily, I would agree with the philosophy behind cheeks post.    I think playing too many minutes can lead to fatigue come tourney time.    However, in this instance, with 8 days off prior and Chartouny being ineffective, I get it.     I don't want to see it again this weekend, that is for certain. 

[PGsHeroes32]

I think it was a forgone conclusion he was gonna play a lot vs DePaul and Butler due to the days off.

[MU82]

I remember Bobby Knight being asked about the heavy minutes he was giving his starters during the NCAA tournament. Obviously, I don't remember the exact quote, but it was along the lines of ...

"The way time-outs are nowadays, you get 2 minutes of rest every time there's a 30-second time-out, and 3-4 minutes of rest every time there is a full time-out. There's a TV time-out every 4 minutes of game clock, and that lasts 3-4 minutes. Then halftime is at least 15 minutes long. And the end of every game is filled with time-outs and free throws, and the players get a ton of rest then. Our guys get way more rest in a game than they get in a practice. They are fine."

It's hard to argue with that. I'd posit that there is far more mental fatigue, especially late in games, than there is physical fatigue. Markus is just as likely (if not more likely) to get hurt in practice than he is in a game.

Having said that, if there is an opportunity to get him out of there for a spell or two, I'm all for it. I like the idea of sitting a guy down for the final 30-60 seconds before a TV time-out to maximize the breather. But again, I agree with Knight that it's not really an issue for a well-conditioned athlete.