(No one is saying that it is only possible for players to be injured in games. It is incontrovertible that a player can only be hurt when he's doing something, and playing in games is doing something.)twocoach wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:51 pmDok two wrist injuries have both happened in practice, correct?jfish26 wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 1:08 pmIt's easy to say all of this, but don't you get a pit in your stomach in advance at the thought of, say, Doke breaking a wrist playing Oklahoma next Thursday?twocoach wrote: ↑Thu Mar 05, 2020 12:49 pm
That isnt happening. Bill Self doesnt do that and I dont see him starting to do that. Fans do this same dance every year, mainly because they are freaked out about how good a shot the team has so they want them all wrapped in bubble wrap and stored away for the tourney.
Every game is a chance to get better and a chance to gain valuable experience and reps. View it as a chance to help prepare to win a national title instead of a chance to get injured and lose a national title and you'll live longer.
We have a maximum of 10 games left. I hope they play hard and win them all.
The chances are small, but obviously not remote (especially when there's really three indispensable guys, each with history).
Should Self hold him out of practice?
At some some point, preventative steps such as this just prevent you from winning. If we are up 15 with 4 minutes left then put SFS in and let him finish it out and save a few reps. Outside of that...it's sports. Fluky things happen sometimes.
I'm glad you've heard the joke about prevent defenses, but in this case, we're talking about winning something that has no positive impact whatsoever on our seeding. By "playing to win", marginally-good (but ultimately meaningless) things can happen. And very very bad, and fate-sealing, things can happen.