[AlbanyCardinal]

I suppose it's possible, and the thought did cross my mind when I saw Wills cheering on his mates. That would be fairly sensible, since even with BW and DD on the floor, Stanford would have lost last night. But even if so, certain personnel choices still don't add up, namely benching ZW for the second half and OTs at WSU, a game that would have been won had Stanford been deeper in crunch time (or had coach called for a foul at the end of regulation).

In any case, I hope the team is fully rested and healthy for the conference tourney.

How about this: Haase just grew tired of playing with a thin/injured lineup and tossed this game against USC in favor of rest for all. Maybe Davis and Wills are just not healthy enough to be playing yet. In the WSU game, an average P12 guard goes for 40, with a lot of them on Wills. In the OSU game, he again was clearly not his normal defensive-stopper-self. Also in the OSU game, Davis is not giving his all (maybe he's at 70% or something like that) so Haase pulls him out. So, instead of burning them this week too, he decides to give them 10+ days of rest for a final push in the P12 tourney where the full squad *might* be healthy for the first time in months. Whacky, but plausible?

Williams is gone. Talent and youth trump all in the NBA. His draft stock might drop some with his sub-par year (a la McDaniels who fell from lottery to near the end of Round 1). It's too risky these days for an elite body to burn another year in college.

[AlbanyCardinal]

I suppose it's possible, and the thought did cross my mind when I saw Wills cheering on his mates. That would be fairly sensible, since even with BW and DD on the floor, Stanford would have lost last night. But even if so, certain personnel choices still don't add up, namely benching ZW for the second half and OTs at WSU, a game that would have been won had Stanford been deeper in crunch time (or had coach called for a foul at the end of regulation).

In any case, I hope the team is fully rested and healthy for the conference tourney.

How about this: Haase just grew tired of playing with a thin/injured lineup and tossed this game against USC in favor of rest for all. Maybe Davis and Wills are just not healthy enough to be playing yet. In the WSU game, an average P12 guard goes for 40, with a lot of them on Wills. In the OSU game, he again was clearly not his normal defensive-stopper-self. Also in the OSU game, Davis is not giving his all (maybe he's at 70% or something like that) so Haase pulls him out. So, instead of burning them this week too, he decides to give them 10+ days of rest for a final push in the P12 tourney where the full squad *might* be healthy for the first time in months. Whacky, but plausible?

Williams is gone. Talent and youth trump all in the NBA. His draft stock might drop some with his sub-par year (a la McDaniels who fell from lottery to near the end of Round 1). It's too risky these days for an elite body to burn another year in college.