Ford Considering Lineup Changes
By John Helsley
jhelsley@opubco.com
Travis Ford may be tinkering with his lineup. If not Wednesday night, soon.
Coming off consecutive road losses at Oklahoma and Baylor that saw OSU’s shooting slump again doom the day, the Cowboys coach said he’s been pondering some changes.
Ford may take one more look at his standard lineup against Colorado, since the Buffs send out a starting five featuring four guards. Still, expect some changes in playing time, with Matt Pilgrim’s on the upswing, possibly taking away from the scuffling Keiton Page, who has made just 3-of-16 shots in conference play.
I asked Ford about the possibility he’d make some lineup changes, or if he was committed to sticking with status quo.
Ford’s response:
I don’t like what I’ve got going. You’re question has been thought about a lot in the last 48 hours, believe me. A lot of scenarios have gone through my head on which direction to go and change and trying to mix things up a bit, for a lot of reasons — whether to get a guy’s attention or this might just be better, the different lineups I’ve looked at.
There’s no question, Matt Pilgrim needs to be playing starter-type minutes. And you hear all the time, it doesn’t matter who starts. And as a coach, you really know that and you understand that and that is an absolute 100 percent truth. But you know starting lineups can motivate people and can do different things.
With that said, I don’t know yet, for the fact that I don’t know who I would take out right now. I know who I would like to take out and motivate and do some things, but I don’t know if it’s the right time, right place to do it.
You could start Matt Pilgrim and Marshall Moses and move Obi to the 3, but I don’t know if that’s the answer for Obi at the 3. I don’t think that helps our team particularly just to try to get bigger. I don’t know if that’s the answer right now. But it’s no question, things have been going through our head after losing two in a row. We don’t want to make too many changes right now, but it’s been a thought. (Pilgrim) will play starter minutes.
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