Did I miss something? Why is he not seeing the floor at all? He is an elite defender and rebounder. I would rather play small ball with Mullins than watch Fitzmorris be two steps behind his man on every possession.
Why is Mullins out of the rotation completely?
- Thread starter Southport Cat
- Start date
While I don't remember seeing him in this game, supposedly he logged 5 minutes. Still a lot less than he had been getting
He played in OT.
And his absence is a mystery. He’s either injured or in the doghouse.
This team was always going to have a low ceiling without a true point guard.
Boo’s loss weighs heavily this season, which is a shame with all the NIL cash being wasted on other sports.
Mullins entered the game with 19 seconds left in overtime.
He did not play other than that.
He did not play other than that.
Yeah, this is a weird one. I thought Mullins was becoming a valuable role player. Plays well on the defensive end and knows his role on the offensive end. Not a great three point shooter, but has shown he can make them sometimes when he is open.
I know there are only so many minutes to go around, but I think Mullins deserves more than he has gotten the last few games (which is pretty much none). I think he does some good things when he is on the floor, even if it doesn't completely show up in the box score.
I know there are only so many minutes to go around, but I think Mullins deserves more than he has gotten the last few games (which is pretty much none). I think he does some good things when he is on the floor, even if it doesn't completely show up in the box score.
We need to rest Martinelli and Barney more as they're shooting percentages have recently plummeted due to do playing excessive minutes and someone like Mullins could take those minutes
I'm in the camp of trying to get these guys a few extra minutes of rest a game (maybe have them out there around 35-36 minutes a game instead of 39 minutes). That said, it's hard to know for sure why their shooting percentage are down (especially Barnhizer) the last few games. Could be a variety of things, including just going through a cold streak. Really impossible to know if it's minutes related or not.
Something has to be up with Mullins that kept him off the floor. Is he under the weather, injured or something else? It would be great to have him and Hunger back this week.
Supposedly Mullins is fine. Collins I guess wants better shooters on the floor. He believes the two freshman are better shooters than Mullins.
I think their shooting percentages are coming back to earth because we’re playing B1G defenses and lack a point guard.
Leach is a 2. Not a 1. We were always doomed without an adequate replacement for Boo.
It might be an injury, and he only played the final 19 seconds due to an emergency.
This is a minor NBA league now. Players get hurt playing physical B1G basketball. Not everything is a disciplinary issue
The ESPN box score has him as 0 minutes.
Essentially he played, but less than 30 seconds.
The box score for this game has Ciaravino at 22 minutes. H played 16.
It also has Nicholson at 30 when he played 36.
I'm that camp with you. Collins and Barney have hinted that the pre-season injury might still be nagging Barney. I think some rest would not hurt at all. Find ways to use Mullins and Gelo to give Barney more breathers.
In his last four games, Brooks has been struggling with his shooting => 32.2%. For the season he is 41.7% and his career average is 41.5%.
| Opponent | Minutes | FG-ATT | Points |
| @ Michigan (OT) | 42 | 5-14 | 21 |
| Maryland (OT) | 43 | 8-17 | 20 |
| MSU | 37 | 2-13 | 4 |
| @ Purdue | 34 | 4-15 | 11 |
The fact that he is being so coy about it suggests to me it is a discipline or performance issue and not injury related. If it were injury related and they were watching his minutes, he would just say so I'd think.
Or... and hear me out... maybe Coach Collins reads all the brilliant ideas on Wildcat Report and goes from there.
I mean, some of us were writing things like
"You have to give some of Mullins minutes to Ciaravino and Windham"
"You really don't want to play Mullins with Nicholson, but we seem to do ok with Mullins and Hunger out there together"
and finally
Lou flat out said Ciaravino should be starting in Ty Berry's place.
Collins then immediately did all of those.
What doesn’t smell right to me is even in the “I need a guy for two minutes at a time who can stay in front of his man, rotate correctly, and box out” scenario we have seen Blake Smith the last two games instead Mullins.
I would also argue that the three best defenders on the team aside from big Matty are Ty, Brooks, and Justin in some order. We are a defense-oriented team so Mullins getting squeezed still feels off.
It’s definitely not just a “rotation adjustment” issue. Cmon guys. Read between the lines. He was playing legit minutes and then went to nada (basically). Something is definitely up.
It started in the Purdue game.
We'd been outscored 26-12 with Mullins on the court at one point.
Windham and Ciaravino both played the final 13 minutes, mostly with Fitzmorris, after Hunger got injured.
We turned a 58-32 deficit into a more palatable 79-61 loss.
The next game, against MSU, Hunger was out and Mullins played poorly - 3 turnovers, 1 steal, 0 for 1 from the field in 16 minutes.
As a team we looked pretty bad on offense.
Windham was on the court with Martinelli, Barnhizer and Leach for the late 14-6 run that made that score less awful.
Then Collins put Ciaravino in the starting lineup for Maryland.
When Hunger gets back - we may see Mullins again, but Windham and Ciaravino bring more to the table.
Around the time Mullins fell out of the rotation I was here arguing most coaches would change things up when going through a slump. I argued that even if was not something that made a lot of tactical sense, sometimes a change is needed.
NU made Berry the 6th man and Mullins fell out of the rotation in favor of the two freshmen.
NU made Berry the 6th man and Mullins fell out of the rotation in favor of the two freshmen.
Maybe it is because he provides almost zero offense except for layups or dunks and they struggle to score points. Their D without him has been just fine.
I'm not all that convinced his D is so fantastic. He is athletic and can get some steals, but I also felt like he was getting beat off the dribble a lot in some games. He's not a bad defender, but he is just not the airtight lock-down defender that makes up for his lack of offense. The frustrating thing is that I feel like he has another gear on offense, especially getting to the hoop. I keep thinking it is a confidence thing, but maybe that gear isn't there. CCC sees him in practice, so he knows better than me.
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