Question about Mr. McCormack

After his strong start to the second half, it seems he was on the bench for the latter part of the half and wound up playing under his average in minutes. Does anyone know why that is? Could be that his foot injury was flaring up, but like to know why if it's out there.

Thanks,
Port

If I were to guess I'd say that given the fast pace of the game after halftime he got a breather and by the time he would have returned our lead was large enough to let him stay on the bench.

I’d speculate two main reasons. First, Bill Self’s substitution patterns are pretty predictable. I know this because believe it or not I track every substitution for ever game (this is how I calculate +/-). And one of his patterns is if the team is rolling he lets them roll. Pretty much whenever the team is on one of those rolls he only substitutes for fatigue. The team was rolling and I think he just let them roll. Another pattern is he almost always substitutes David at somewhere around the 3-4 minute mark in each half. I always assumed this was because he wanted high energy at the beginning of each half and David’s conditioning is not like those other gazelles. So he gives David a breather. I think it is also possible that he is giving David as much rest as possible due to his foot injury. David showed last season that he is the ultimate trooper at playing through pain. Who knew how serious that injury last year was but he played right through it. I suspect Self knows that David is in pretty good amount of pain that Amaya be exacerbated with more playing time. So Self is just trying to protect him as much as he can.

Corpus' analysis is pretty impressive and probably pretty close to the truth.

My analysis is more simple:

David tends to have trouble keeping hold of the ball at times, and isn't always super reliable. When the switch is "on" he's great, but if it's not, he can be a liability.

Mitch might not have as much top end talent, but he's super consistent. So when things started rolling in the 2nd half and Mitch was on the court, it was a smart call to let things continue to roll.

By no means is this a shot at David, because he's also playing with a hurt foot, which I'm sure is having an impact.

If my memory serves me correctly, Self admitted in the postgame presser that he should have put DMac back in, and quipped that Dave was probably nodding his head in agreement down the way. I don't remember exactly his explanation but I believe it was like someone mentioned above. They were on a roll and he didn't want to disrupt anything.

Per ESPN's Play-by-Play, DM was in at the 13:06 mark in 2nd half. In those 7 minutes, he had 8 points, several rebounds, and infectious energy that seemed to rub off on CB. KU lead then 48-42 (a 19-7 2nd half start).
As to why HCBS didn't put DM back in, maybe since ML was doing well and hadn't gotten into usual foul trouble.
Find it interesting that DB, DM, & RM made the all tourney team, with RM the MOP. A multi-faceted team.

Just for Clarity I think you meant CB not DB.

Didn't the U's center/three point threat foul out about the time DMac rested?
From there on we played smaller but faster IMHO.


RC

Yes, thanks. What I get for being lazy.