Need to leave Karena in with 2 fouls

[twizman]

I've noticed a trend where Michael Karena will pick up 2 fouls early in the first half, sit for the remainder of the half, then get a 3rd foul early in the second half. Then he sits some more.

Then he ends the game with 3 fouls.

IMO, Coach Donlon should play Karena even if he gets saddled with his 2nd foul in the first half. And if he has 3 fouls early in the second half, play him. If he fouls out, at least you know you maximized his minutes. If you play a good center (which he is) for a total of 8 minutes because of "foul trouble" ... and he finishes the game with only 3 fouls on his ledger, that is poor usage of his minutes.

Roll the dice and play him. If he fouls out, no biggie. Frankly, while Ernsthausen is a downgrade from Karena, late in a game Ernsthausen isn't a bad guy to have on the floor as your center. He will play decent defense and is a good FT shooter. So, even if Karena fouls out, the Raiders have a decent backup they can turn to. Billy needs to get away from this idea he needs to bench Karena every time he gets in any sort of foul trouble.

[rock70]

Feb 5, 2016 20:34:18 GMT -5 twizman said:

I've noticed a trend where Michael Karena will pick up 2 fouls early in the first half, sit for the remainder of the half, then get a 3rd foul early in the second half. Then he sits some more.

Then he ends the game with 3 fouls.

IMO, Coach Donlon should play Karena even if he gets saddled with his 2nd foul in the first half. And if he has 3 fouls early in the second half, play him. If he fouls out, at least you know you maximized his minutes. If you play a good center (which he is) for a total of 8 minutes because of "foul trouble" ... and he finishes the game with only 3 fouls on his ledger, that is poor usage of his minutes.

Roll the dice and play him. If he fouls out, no biggie. Frankly, while Ernsthausen is a downgrade from Karena, late in a game Ernsthausen isn't a bad guy to have on the floor as your center. He will play decent defense and is a good FT shooter. So, even if Karena fouls out, the Raiders have a decent backup they can turn to. Billy needs to get away from this idea he needs to bench Karena every time he gets in any sort of foul trouble.

I agree 100%. Karena has played a total of 19 minutes the last two games and ended both games with 3 fouls so it is more of Billy NOT wanting to play him then fouls being the sole reason to sit him. I was listening to last Sunday's game and you could hear the frustration in coach Brown's voice over Michael not playing. Billy is going all in on 4 guards! We'll all see how that works out........

[hhgreen]

4 guard offense should be uptempo play? Not passing around till we get an open jumper with 5 secs to go.