Yeah, good points. I think this all relates to what you were saying yesterday about how the bench guys break through to get more PT. He doesn’t have enough reps in the system to be comfortable, and he’s not doing enough of anything else to break through. Yet.
I think the change in how Bennett has operated since 2012-13 or so, is either (1) the bar to “break through” is higher than it used to be, or (2) seems odd to say, given that the talent level on our team is not that high, we have more competent talent on our team now than we did in 12-13. Anderson, Nolte, and Tobey played right away because they had to. (Or, some combo of 1 and 2).
But to repeat something I may have said already: the reason why 13-14 was so much better than anyone expected it to be was that we had guys reaching a certain threshold of college minutes, all at the same time: Akil and Joe were the base, but Malc, Justin, Nolte, and Tobey (plus Gill at SC) getting big enough minutes in their true frosh seasons gave us the lift we needed for things to click, early in 2014.
NOT playing Igor, Taine, Murray, and/or McCorkle, is delaying that click moment for next year. In my opinion. (Which, to be fair, is sometimes wrong).
There isn’t going to be a click moment for Papi or Kody or Malachi. Or, (close your eyes everybody), Jayden Gardner**. So seeing those guys get so many minutes is ultimately a bit frustrating, to me.
** to clarify my Gardner thoughts on the “click”. IMO, Gardner won’t be ever be a key piece on a very good UVa team. He could be a role player on a very good UVa team. He has shown he can be a key piece on a meh to not that good UVa team. But I can’t see him being a key piece on a very good UVa team.