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johnlg00 writes:

in response to SoddyVol:

These Tenn ladies think they have hard practices. Except for two players in for a total 1 & 2 minutes, MTSU played only 5 players. They seemed to be in better shape than Tenn. I didn't see them cramping up like one or two of Vols. Guess they are used to playing the whole game without a break.

Interesting point. In fact, many good teams don't play more than seven or eight players for the most part. The cohesion and sense of responsibility players develop when they play together all the time is invaluable. Good coaches know how to give a player a few minutes rest by substituting somebody for a minute or so before a media timeout. That gives the starter as much as five minutes of rest while only seconds may come off the game clock. Individual conditioning obviously plays a role also. Since I didn't see any stats indicating that the teams shot amazing percentages, the score would indicate that it was a fast-paced game.

I'm hoping that as the season goes on, the players will become accustomed to longer playing stints and the rotation will shorten a bit to no more than seven or eight regular players. That can be a morale problem on a squad like the LVs have, with All-America type players all the way down the bench, but it can be handled by good coaching. This team likely won't win the NCAA this year, but they should lay a firm foundation for championship teams in the coming years.

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