One of the strengths of Shields' teams in the last three or four years has been our depth. He has played a lot of players and gone deep into the roster. The results is that even the players in the bottom third of the roster had a lot of experience. But what does that gain you? Sure, if you get someone hurt it can pay off, but outside of that, it seems to me that it has limited returns.
Presumably your best players is considerably better than your sixth player. Your top three players are much better than your 7th, 8th and 9th players. So, you do not want to have playes 7-9 on the floor any more than necessary. Sometimes they are necessary, and when you need them you may need them badly, but you do not need them most of the time.
With the multitude of timeouts that are in college basketball today, fatigue should not be very much of a factor, regardless of the pace at which a team plays. If a coach substitutes judiciously, the starters should be able to stay reasonably fresh and still play the lion's share of the minutes.
Going deep into the bench certainly will help morale and helps prepare for the future, but it does NOT do much to win championships right now. All else being equal, the best players to be on the floor as much as they can, as long as they can be kept rested enough to go full speed.
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