I agree that the red shirt is an ideal tool for building a kids confidence and getting them acclimated, and as evidenced by this year’s oh so young and not so strong true freshmen, the chance to hit the iron and bulk up. Circumstance has torpedoed Wulff ultimate lans to red shirt nearly all frosh… a plan I hope he survives long enough to implement. In football it is vital to use the RS to build up the recruit’s girth. He has “saved” a good % of this years freshman crew. I think it is less so for hoops, but in the case of Brown I agree. Not sure what the plan is in playing him. Unless Bone is plotting a 12 man rotation so he can just press at 3/4 in many games and not worry about fouls. My guess with Bjorn is that Bone knows he needs to use those ten fouls in the paint from Enquist and Bjorn- the only height in sight outside of Casto. The lack of bulk will necessitate fouls sending the opposition bigs to the line in lieu of lay ups and put backs. Especially with the higher tempo… which will give the foe a lot more possessions that the previous 5 years of Coug hoops. I like using Bjorn and Enquist and having tree’s in the middle of the paint. If the presence of one of them forces the shooter to the off side- that is Casto country, also known as block city. Wulff has expressed a desire to use the red shirt to his advantage… maybe Bone is going with baptism by fire. Go Cougs

Bjornstad is going to have to play out of necessity at some point. Might as well get him some action.

And while Brown seems curious, it’s not that crazy. I’m working on a post for next week looking at how Bone generally distributes his minutes, but here’s the short of it: He plays lots of guys. Lots. So, if a guard or two goes down this season for even a short time, Brown will be in the rotation, if only for 8-10 minutes a night. While that doesn’t seem like “needed” to the rest of us, he’ll likely be “needed” according to Bone’s philosophy.

In an ideal world? Yeah, redshirts are nice. But I’ve got a hunch Bone’s also betting on his ability to get even better players in here over the next couple of years, making the point moot anyway. As someone pointed out, basketball is a little different beast than football in that respect.

The word is the kid has unreal hops and is a great shot blocker when healthy. I envisioned he and Casto sending the pumpkin OUT… if he is indeed a big leaper and it is his back that is the problem, he may be ticketed for exit. That is a bad combo, weak back big hops…

Has anyone else thought about how awesome it would be to have Thomas Abercrombie on this team? Dang.

about the redshirts in Bball. For the big fellas, the physical maturity would be nice, and for a some guys you’ll see they’ve got some technique to pick up, where a redshirt might make a big difference. But it wasn’t all that long ago players were going straight from HS to the NBA. Even bigs. The physical aspect of the game just doesn’t make as much of a difference in basketball as in football.

I think Wulff, this year in particular, has tried to hit a balance between using guys who’ll help right away, and redshirting. For example, keeping Tuel off the field the first few games hoping Marshall or Kevin would step up and take over the team, but ultimately burning the shirt when neither did. Using Long and Simone but keeping Washington and Carpenter out, who could clearly also help this year. Same with Pu’u-Robinson and Clayton on the D-line. I think you could make an argument either way, on Washington and Carpenter, but definitely the right decision on P-R and Clayton, due to the physical maturity thing. I’m actually amazed Long hasn’t had more issues being so young.