He trots out the same 5 every game. Regardless of matchups or who's playing well at any point of the season. Would it really be so difficult to experiment just once with a different lineup at the beginning of the game?

MY had made real progress in learning to trust his bench and it showed in the recent results. Yesterday, he reverted back to tendencies from earlier in the season, and it cost us.

There was one key stretch in the second half where VT cut UNC's lead to 5, with both Pedulla and Maddox in the game. After a timeout, both were put back on the bench, UNC stretched the lead back to double digits, and Maddox in particular didn't see the court again until it was desperation time at the end.

There are two things that have become crystal clear as the season has worn on.

1. Pedulla is a better PG than Murphy. Both the numbers and the eye test confirm it. So why does Murphy continue to start and get the lion's share of the minutes? I would like to hear Coach address this.

2. Any game where Alleyne is the biggest volume shooter is a guaranteed loss. Why, in a game as critical as yesterday's, is he taking SIX TIMES as many shots as Maddox, who is a better shooter and better offensive player in general? Why does our coach allow this?

Yes, the team as a whole did not shoot well yesterday. But, as in most of our other "poor shooting games" this season, it's not just that we are missing shots, it is WHO IS TAKING THOSE SHOTS. And it's how tired the legs are of the players taking those shots.

On a day when Murphy and Alleyne combined to go 5-19 from the floor, while Maddox and Pedulla were 4-8, it would seem a no-brainer that the coach would (a) gently encourage the former two to take less shots, and (b) adjust the game minutes (the former two played 51 combined mins, the latter two 36). Instead, the attitude seems to be "well, we had a tough shooting day, nothing can be done about that".