Originally Posted by
ArtVandelay
I think you may have nailed it here. The thought actually occurred to me as well while watching yesterday. K said something in an interview this week about it being unfortunate that our conference tourney ends on a sunday, giving us one less day of rest. Dykes also made a comment during the broadcast about how Duke had been going 5-on-5 in practice this week, and that it was pretty grueling. The implication seemed to be that they were preparing for next weekend, not this weekend.
As JasonEvans said, you always want to win, but sometimes a loss hurts less. Data points: Kyle was getting a LOT of rest, the 5 for 5 subs, and the fact that we were playing with McClure in there during crunch time. Now, granted, G aggravated his wrist and Dave played well in the tournament, but I thought it was odd as well not to see more heavy reliance on the usual end of game rotation.